After Life
by Midnight Parallax
Summary: What happens when life doesn't go quite the way Max expected it to? Post FN. Fluff-angst.
1. Chapter 1: In Another Life

**AFTER LIFE**

Summary: Series of drabbles from after Freak Nation featuring Max and Alec.

A/N:These are just random scenes from a burst of inspiration while I was bored. There's no real plot, they're just kind of flashes of Max and Alec's lives after the siege. But since summer's over and nobody is posting as frequently, I figured why not? I know I love having stuff to procrastinate with during essays and exams.

A/N 2: I love M/A but not in the mushy way that makes them lose their edge. Being cold and cut off is part of their charm. I was upset that the writers didn't handle the story for this properly, or see that Max and Alec had way better chemistry than Max and Logan. Seriously, would there be this many M/A shippers if there wasn't any? The antagonism between them was just a bit too much for no real reason, which could only mean that they were into each other and fighting it.

There was no way DA would've been cancelled if they showed Jessica Alba and Jensen Ackles all over each other. Nothing is more adorable than watching two extremely hot and tragically broken people hook up.

A/N 3: On to my story. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 1: In Another Life**

Adam had been watching the news.

Everyone had been. It had started out as any other day, until someone at the truck stop pointed to the TV in the diner.

It wasn't every day that a group of transgenics took a place hostage in front of an entire news crew. Transgenics had barcodes on the back of their necks indicating the designer labels of a covert government military operation, the news anchor said. It was a mark he bore himself but had no memory of how. He had just assumed it was from one crazed drunken life he couldn't remember.

Now he wondered, was he the same as the freaks on TV? The only difference was that he wasn't in Seattle, which was in the heart of the issue. However that was the earliest place he could remember being after his accident. He had always suspected something was off when he still couldn't recall anything from his life before it.

The girl from the waiting room was still stuck in his head, even if he didn't know her, he liked to remember her. She was beautiful, but her eyes were filled with tragedy, as if she had lost someone dear to her.

Suddenly, there she was again on his TV screen in his apartment. Riding a hover drone.

Transgenics. Hostages. Seattle.

"Max," he finally choked out. "It's Max!"

The memories began rushing back to him.

His name wasn't Adam. It was Zack.

Max. Logan. Zane. Jondy. Exchanging his life for Max's.

He had to get to them and fast. How could she let him abandon them? He should have known she would be the one to compromise everything. Getting to them was all he could think about as he packed his bag.

Everything had been compromised and he hadn't been there to stop it. He grabbed the keys to his truck and thought about the life he was about to give up – his friends, his family. No, his real family was being held captive by police barricades.

They needed him. A soldier never abandons his unit.

It would be a long drive to Seattle and he would have to be prepared for anything when he got there.


	2. Chapter 2: All I Have

A/N: This takes place after Freak Nation. Not my best work, like I said. Just a random set of thoughts I felt like sharing. I didn't edit or revise any of this.

**

* * *

  
Chapter 2: All I Have**

Logan, Sketchy and Original Cindy would have to leave Terminal City soon. There was a reason the sector had been shut off from the general public. But Max didn't want them to leave. She wouldn't know when she would see any of them again. However they would end up exposed to all sorts of biohazards (which included disgruntled transgenics) if they stayed much longer, and there weren't any proper medical supplies to treat them if something did happen. At the moment, Max was also the biggest biohazard to Logan just to help the situation. When he let go of her hand on the roof, a ghost of his touch still lingered on.

They had to get the humans out but the police barricades and mobs were still waiting for them. Of course, no one knew what they were really going to do.

A message had been sent – transgenics were here to stay. They had been created to protect the same people who now wanted their lifeless bodies buried or burned. Why were they being denied their chance to co-exist freely? People thought nothing of using them like animals. But they were people too. They had earned their freedom.

* * *

"You're going to have to get moving soon," Max said to OC.

"We're not goin' anywhere," Original Cindy said.

"Yeah, I haven't even gotten an interview yet," Sketchy said.

"It's not safe for you here," Max said. "You risk exposure to all sorts of nasty superbugs and what not floating around here. If you could stay…"

Logan nodded. "She's right. We can't stick around here too long. But when will we see you again? It's not like Terminal City has a toll booth."

Max bit down on her bottom lip. "I don't know… what I do know is that there will be an 'again' if we get you out of here."

"Plus, you'll need some guys on the outside, especially since White is still out there," Logan added.

It was Max's turn to be nod. The thought of not knowing when she would actually be with any of them again was too much even though she tried to hide it. Logan could see it on her face and wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right. But he couldn't. Not if he wanted to see her again. Alec put his arm around her for support. He had forgotten about Alec for a moment. Alec was like her. He could stay in Terminal City and no one would look at him twice, doubting his allegiance. Alec was the one she had chosen. Suddenly Logan couldn't wait to leave Terminal City. He didn't belong there at all.

Original Cindy caught the look in Logan's eyes as he watched Max and Alec walking back to the Command Center. She shook her head. None of this was right. She wanted to smack Alec for inserting himself between Max and Logan, but she knew he was trying to help in his own Alec way. He hadn't ratted out Max's lie after all. That left him caught in the middle indefinitely. Original Cindy wasn't down with this amount of lying, in spite of whose life was in jeopardy. She didn't want to leave Max behind here. Life outside without Max just didn't feel right. Of course, staying inside was going to mean having no life. Logan was right. The transgenics needed as many friends outside as they could get. It didn't help that White and his crew were waiting for them out there, among lots of other people who wanted to do the same amount of damage to them.

People didn't like what they didn't understand. Or when it looked too similar to the parts of themselves they were trying to keep hidden.

* * *

"So any plans on how to get the ordinaries out?" asked Mole as he bit down on his cigar. "I'm sure that crowd out there would be glad to know we didn't eat them."

"Yeah, a bunch of transgenic sympathizers are really gonna win their hearts over," Logan said.

"The sewers?" suggested Joshua. "Sewers go out."

"The sewers?!" exclaimed Sketchy, making a disgusted face as he recalled his last adventure down there.

"Think of it this way, maybe you could interview Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello," Original Cindy pointed out.

The transgenics looked perplexed.

"Why would Renaissance Italian painters be in the sewers of Seattle?" asked Dix.

"They're the Ninja Turtles," Sketchy tried to explain. "These half-human, half-turtles who fight like ninjas whose master is half-rat, half-man."

The transgenics nodded knowingly.

"I think I know who he's talking about," Luke declared. "The guys in the aquatics division! And another of you rat fellows. So that's where they've been! We ought to tell them to come around here some time."

"He's joking, right?" Sketchy whispered to OC.

"I don't know," Cindy replied.

"They've probably got people waiting at every manhole cover for miles," Max said. "We're better off just handing you over face forward so they don't realize how deep in this you really are."

"We'd better make good use of this trade," Alec pointed out. "Food and medical supplies for each of these guys."

"Good idea," Max said.

Logan wished he had thought of that. "Okay, let's set up a line."

This was one of the most difficult things Max had to do. Clemente was outside when he received the call from 452. She had three humans inside and needed some supplies that would be of use. Clemente demanded to know if it wasn't some ploy to send Xs out then steal the supplies. She told him to confirm with Normal that they were actual human employees of Jam Pony. They couldn't find out who Logan was though. Logan had no business being at Jam Pony and it would raise too many questions. He would have to be Alec McDowell, who wasn't accounted for. He didn't like it, but that was what Normal confirmed for the police. No news crews were to be allowed. Everything was to be done quietly. It wasn't going to be easy, but the people outside didn't need to know that the transgenics would jam the TV signals during the exchange.


	3. Chapter 3: Everything I Need

A/N: The story just took on a life of its own and didn't quite pan out, I won't mince words over it. It's choppy, lacks depth and didn't achieve much in adding any sort of new depth to any character. It started mostly with me trying to figure out the set up for how our daring duo end up together, but it got rambly and took more room than I'd anticipated. After Chapter 4, it's more fluff on how they get together, and how it impacts Logan, Asha, Zack and Jondy -- yes, I've gone down that clichéd road. There's another (more structured) M/A story I'm working on and will post once this is done (which shouldn't be long from now if the Fates allow). By the way, there is a theme to the Chapter titles. Feel free to take a stab at it. If no one gets it, I'll post it later.

A/N 2: ANY sort of feedback would be nice (review it, send me a message, tag it, whatever).

* * *

**Chapter 3: Everything I Need**

It was night when three army supply trucks arrived. They were risking a lot. The food and medicine could have been tampered with. There could have been containers of nerve gas or bombs. Yet it was a risk they had to take. There were so many mouths to be fed.

They had to do it.

Even the president agreed when word got out that there were three humans locked inside. The military had no idea what they were dealing with. The higher-ups weren't so sure about destroying billions of dollars worth of military technology that couldn't be replaced. They had aimed to prevent exposure, but now that the cat was out of the bag, some were having doubts that laying waste to the transgenics made sense.

So for the time being, they were at a moot point.

Ten minutes before the exchange was to take place, Max and her close friends stood in the parking lot. The trucks would be allowed in and the supplies would be unpacked in front of them. Then Logan, Sketchy and OC would leave with the soldiers. It sounded simple enough, but there were so many ways this could all go wrong.

* * *

"You okay, boo?" asked OC.

Max put on a determined face. "Yeah, I just…"

"No need to explain," said Original Cindy. "Maybe you should tell him the truth about you know who."

Max shook her head. "I can't. Not now. He needs to let go… more than ever."

There was no arguing with her. Besides, maybe Logan was better off thinking she was happy this way. It wasn't like they could stay here together. They still couldn't even touch. Maybe they needed to move on. Life was just downright nasty sometimes. Logan and Max's relationship would have to wait. There was too much at stake.

Original Cindy saw Alec giving Sketchy his interview and she didn't even need to hear it to know that he was taking a lot of the credit for what went down. She was going to have to straighten that boy out. First, she needed to hug Max.

"Now girl, you take care of yourself," Original Cindy said to her. "Not that you can't, but you're going to be watching out for a whole lotta people… among a whole lotta other things."

She motioned her head towards Mole, who was armed and ready for action. Joshua was standing beside him, saying goodbye to Logan.

"So, do you wanna tell him?" asked Alec, causing Max to jump.

She had been lost in her own thoughts and hadn't noticed him walking up to her.

"No," she snapped and hit him.

He would have jumped out of the way but thought she would take comfort in hitting him. He didn't want to let them know he was going to miss them too. He didn't miss anyone, that wasn't the kind of person he was. The situation could have been worse, like with Biggs and Cece. They would probably see each other again soon. There was no point in long goodbyes. People came and went. No need to get sentimental about it.

"Who would've thought I'd end up with an abusive girlfriend?" Alec said.

Max rolled her eyes and went over to Logan.

"Hey you," Max greeted him.

"Hey," replied Logan. "So I guess you find him annoying still?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes… he's a really good guy," Max said.

"Yeah," Logan said. "Look Max, we'll probably video conference again soon but it's not the same. I just wanted to let you know that you can always count on me. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"I won't," said Max with a hint of sadness. She wanted to tell him the truth, except she couldn't find the words. She wanted to hug him and remembered why things had to be this way. "Okay, let's do this bitch."

"We're ready to move in case something goes sideways," Mole said, even though he was the only visible person with a gun. The gang knew that there were others lurking in the shadows.

Max gave the order to open the gate and three supply trucks entered. Before the gate could close, a pick-up truck came blazing through.

"Max, there's another vehicle!" someone screamed into her phone as the military drivers came out.

"I knew it was too good to be true," said Mole as he aimed to fire.

The speeding pick-up came to a quick halt in front of the military trucks. Max and Alec grinned at the sight, telling Mole to stand down. The soldiers began unpacking the supplies while Zack, Zane, Jondy, Brin, Syl and Krit stepped out of their vehicle.

"Look there, the cavalry's arrived! Too late as usual," Alec said.

Max ran over and hugged all of her siblings. She hugged Zack last as Logan watched. There was so much she wanted to say, to take in, but they would have to wait. The other X5s tried to hug 'Ben' but he dodged them. He wasn't Ben. Ben had died. Syl declared that he was their brother just the same and threw her arms around him. Alec couldn't refuse a pretty blonde.

"All right, that's everything. Now hand over the prisoners," said one of the soldiers after they were done unloading.

Max nodded. "All right."

She couldn't do anything to show affection to her friends. No one could. They had been trained better than that. Original Cindy, Sketchy and Logan climbed into the trucks. Max couldn't help but watch as the vehicles left. She wanted to cry. Alec put his arm around her.

"Don't cry. Or Logan may jump out of the truck and kick my ass," he whispered.

"Shut up," Max said, not tearing her eyes from the vehicles.

"We've got enough to keep us going for a week," Mole informed them once the gates closed. "If any of this stuff is good. What exactly do we do after the military drops in on us before the week is up?"

"You mean you plan to stay here?" demanded Zack. "They're waiting for us out there! They know we're here!"

"If you want to leave, be my guest. But we're done running," Max shot back.

"Well, this is a suicide mission. And we'll see you through it," Krit said. "Right guys?"

The others nodded quickly but Zack was hesistant.

"Fine. We've got nothing else to lose," said Zack finally.

* * *

"Thinking about them?" Asha asked.

She was with Logan in Joshua's house. They were coming up with ways to help Max and the others through the S1W. There was no going back there any time soon. Max's face was everywhere as well. She had been declared by the media as the leader of Terminal City. Not to mention the transgenics on the outside who were trying to get into Terminal City were lurking around Seattle that Logan was trying to wrangle together in the meantime.

"The media is trying to make it look like no one wants them. No one wants to help. But I doubt it," Logan told her.

"Logan Cale doubts the media's spin on things – stop the presses," Asha replied with a laugh.

"We need to find out who's willing to help, and fast," was all Logan said. "We have White and his guys, plus National Security waiting to strike."

He had no humor left in him. He was a man on a mission. It was the time he lost Max to Manticore all over again. He was back to his 'man on a mission' persona. Except this time, the mission was way bigger than either of them could imagine.


	4. Chapter 4: Did Ya Think

A/N: To everyone who stuck it out, I'll finish typing it. Hope I'm not too disappointing. This is going to be a long chapter with a nice not so surprise at the end.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Did Ya Think**

It was early in the morning but Max was still wide awake in the Command Center, watching the news. Joshua was napping at a desk while Alec and Mole were playing poker. That was how Zack entered to find them, and walked over to his little sister. They hadn't spoken much since the others were tired and needed to rest before they could all tell their stories.

"How's it going, leader of all transgenic-kind?" he asked as he sat down beside her.

"Don't call me that," Max growled.

"They're still out there. How much longer do you think we'll last in here?"

"I'm working on it."

"Do you think tomorrow they'll pack up and go and let us into their neighborhoods?"

"No one's stopping you from abandoning this ship," Max replied and stood up.

"I'm not abandoning anything. Or anyone. I was thinking that we leave Seattle," Zack said. "I'd say we're risking tactical exposure but it's too late for that. We can get out if we plan it right."

"That's your answer to everything."

"It's the one option you refuse to listen to. You can't be with him. Your trading in everything by never leaving this place, that's what started it all. Now we're going to die here – if we don't leave," said Zack.

"And go where? On the lam to Canada? I think someone would notice a couple hundred transgenics crossing the border, wouldn't you?"

"We need a plan. This is just like you, Max. You just do whatever and hope it works out for the best. That was fine when it was just you, but not when you have everyone else's neck on the line."

"You think I don't know that?" Max demanded so loudly that Joshua woke up and sat up straight. Alec and Mole had been pretending not to listen, but now turned to look at them.

"So listen to me. We can still sneak everybody out of here—"

"That is not an option," Max said firmly, standing up.

"Don't make me break out the hose on you kitties," Mole warned, but his tone wasn't harsh or angry. It was casual. "But I agree with your boy. It's just a countdown to when they'll take us out."

"Look, let's just calm down," Alec said. "Chill."

"Yeah, let's chill," said Joshua. "Joshua believes in Max. We all believe in Max."

"Yeah, sure," said Mole. "I need a cigar."

He walked out of the Command Center. The screen showing the police blockade hadn't changed. It was almost as if time had stopped out there. The screen beside it began to blink. Logan was trying to start a video session. Max opened the line.

"Hey stranger," Logan greeted her.

"Hey yourself," Max smiled.

"Not looking better out there?"

Max shook her head. She missed him more as she watched him. "Not much worse either… What part of 'We come in peace,' don't these people understand?"

"We could do a broadcast. Try to shed some wisdom on them?"

"I don't know how much good that'll do, but we can try. Right now, we can only weather this out," Max said. "It's like sitting on a crate of dynamite."

"We have dynamite?" asked Joshua curiously.

"Depends. Planning on using it?" Alec replied.

"Is that Alec?" asked Logan.

"Yeah, he's been here all night," Max said.

"Not that he's done much of anything," Zack snickered.

"Hey, I resent that remark. I've been very helpful," Alec chimed in.

"Yeah," said Mole. "To my wallet."

He had come back in without the others noticing. Gem came rushing in after him.

"Turn on the news! Quick!" she commanded, then switched the TV channel herself.

"… the U.N. is convening under emergency status about the problem in Seattle… Are transgenics to be given the right to be considered human and thereby protected by the rights of the Geneva Convention? If so, then the systematic elimination of them must be stopped."

An news anchor in a suit grabbed the senator from New York's attention. "Do you have a statement for us at this time?"

"We make agreements to limit fuel emissions to save polar bears. Then we make some super-powered kids and line them up for murder? Yes, that makes a lot of sense in this day and age. These are people, some children no less! Haven't you seen the reports? The situation in Seattle is senseless."

"They don't look any weirder than the folks from the East Village!" someone cried out in the background.

But the senator continued. "It's time to take responsibility. It's easy to demonize them. Then you remember that they were created to serve and protect us. It doesn't matter how you came into the world, it's what you do in it that does."

"What's the Geneva Convention?" Max asked Logan.

"You mean no one at Manticore ever told you about the Geneva Conventions? You're kidding," said Logan. Then he explained, "It's a series of documents passed after World War II guaranteeing human rights to every person on earth, especially during war time. No genocide, no torturing POWS and the like. Of course, it's great in theory. Or when you need a random excuse to invade another country when it's got supplies you want."

"Oh yes, because Manticore was real big on the humane treatment of people, they would find that gem of information noteworthy. How does that apply to us?"

"From what I hear from my contacts, if they figure you're 'human' then they have to remove the barricades and not aim to kill. You'd be free," Logan told her.

"Hmm… well I'm still holding out hope that PETA will take up our case and have some hot naked model sporting a barcode," Alec whispered to Joshua.

"Then we need to show them just how 'human' we are," Max declared, ignoring Alec's comment only because Logan hadn't heard it.

"Human? This is not what I signed up for," Mole said.

"You need to speak your mind," Logan suggested. "People think. People feel. They have to see that you do too."

Max thought about what he said. "We need to show them who we are. We need to give them a reason to believe in us. See that we're really just like them. Logan, can you get a broadcast sent to the U.N.?"

"Don't tell me that we're turning our battle for survival into a YouTube montage for Eyes Only," Alec pleaded.

Logan ignored Alec's comment and nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

Max gave a quick nod and the transmission ended.

"Hey Josh, check it out," Alec exclaimed. "It's our friend from the art gallery. With your paintings!"

"Joshua work on TV?" asked the dog-man with a smile. "Joshua famous?"

Max couldn't help smiling and hugged him. For so long he and his work had been hidden by darkness. Locked away. Now he was free.

"These paintings were done by a transgenic to rave reviews. How can you say that they don't have souls? Does this look like it could be done by someone without a soul?"

Max wondered if maybe they had more people on their side than they imagined. Not that she was giving the American public the benefit of the doubt, but it gave her some hope about tomorrow. Things would be at a stand still until the U.N. resolved the issue. No one in, no one out. Max never imagined that she would be grateful for bureaucracy. None of them did.

"So we're getting some extra time?" Zack said. "And we're wasting the little we have now. Don't you get it? The U.N. just wants to stick it to the U.S. They won't give us human rights! Because then their own toy super soldiers would have to get rights. There's no way they'd do that."

"Why don't we see what they do?" Max asked.

"All right, you're the leader here," Zack retorted.

"I need some air," said Max. "Coming big fella?"

"Want to watch paintings on TV," said Joshua.

"I'll go with you," Alec volunteered.

"Why am I not surprised?" Zack muttered.

Alec glared at him. "What did you just say?"

Max rolled her eyes and decided to let them settle their own issues. She started walking and Alec decided to follow her instead of wasting his time on Zack. He could only imagine how happy Zack must have been to know Logan was out of the picture, at least for the time being. Alec could tell that the whole situation was getting to her. She had saved his ass so many times, he figured that he might as well be of some use to her. Plus he had helped break Logan's heart, it was the least he could do for the guy since he couldn't be there. And as much as he didn't want to admit it, Alec had grown attached to Max, so he knew it was at a moment like this that she could use a friend.

* * *

"Don't let him get to you," Alec said as they walked down one of the abandoned streets. "You're the one who freed us, not him."

"What kind of freedom is this? We've been locked in here for what a week? Maybe Zack's right. I'm not fit to lead anyone," she said.

"What part of 'Don't let him get to you,' didn't you understand?"

"Fine. I'll let the police and mobs at the gate get to me."

"And you really think that's going to help anybody? You're the girl who burned Manticore to the ground! If anyone's up for the job it's you. Besides, you've burned down an entire covert government facility all on your own, a siege in the middle of a crowded city should be a piece of cake. God, what I wouldn't give for cake right now," Alec teased.

He grinned. Max took another swipe at him and smiled.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" she told him.

"Look, I'm not Psy-ops or can tell the future and all that. But we just have to hang in there," Alec said. "Manticore trained us to hold out against everything. I'm sure they'd be glad to see it in action."

"Alec," Max said softly. "If we ever go back out there, it won't be the same. I want to go back out there and pretend this never happened. But what I really, really want is everyone in here to be able to go out there too. See the world."

He nodded. "I'm imagining what the world will do when it sees Mole."

Max laughed. "Thanks. I needed that."

"I know I'm not him. I mean I can imagine, every time you touch me I keel over too," Alec told her, but regretted it when he saw the look on her face. Then he put his arm around her. "Time to show the world what we're made of."

"I think that's what National Geographic is for. But at least White is off our backs for now," Max said. "Something tells me not for long though. No rest for the wicked."

"Now you think of that? Never stopped you before."

Max couldn't help thinking about how nice it felt to be under his arm. To have someone comforting her. It had been a long time. But it was Alec. Alec, who never shut up and always thought he was funny instead of annoying. He wasn't Logan. No one could be Logan.

Maybe she didn't want him to be Logan.

She wasn't sure how it happened, she had been lulled into a safe place with Alec close to her. She was the kind of person to take care of herself, but every now and again it was nice to have the burden lifted. Suddenly, she found her face moving closer and closer to his. When his lips collided with hers, he made no retreating motions. Was it out of shock or desire? Or some twisted combination of both?

He had to know. There was no way Max just kissed him. He kissed her in all of his dreams, not the other way around. Had he gotten caught up in the moment and forgotten reality?

"Max, I'm sorry," he said and jumped away. "Don't hit me."

"That was weird," Max said. "Anyway, I need to go think about the message to send to Eyes Only."

"Right," Alec said.

He watched her walk away. What was that all about? The stress. The stress had gotten to him, because he knew Max didn't just kiss him. Maybe he had finally lost it. He chalked it up to the lack of sleep and not getting laid in too long.

* * *

_I'm X5-452. I was made in a government facility. So was the rest of my family. _

_We were created to be the ultimate military weapons for the U.S. government. My siblings and I ran away when we were children, deciding that wasn't the life we wanted. But others weren't so lucky…_

_They wanted soldiers, not people. They tried to stifle out of us any notion of humanity that we could have possibly contained. Too bad the human spirit in us isn't so easily murdered. _

_When Eyes Only revealed the location of the facility, the committee decided to lock the doors and burn everything and everyone to the ground. I couldn't let that happen, and opened up the doors._

_Did you know that most of those they tried to kill were people under the age of twenty-five? Who had never known anything but military tactics and rigorous training exercises?_

_Then once we got out, we thought we were free. But no._

_We escaped from being tortured and killed by our superiors to being butchered by the American public._

Pictures of the bodies of transgenic children White had taken out were shown. There were also some anomalies that had been cut up by forensics. It was difficult to watch the photos Logan had dug up. They looked so innocent, almost as if they were sleeping. But it was permanent.

_What did we do to deserve this? We didn't ask to be born, but we aren't going to stand around and let you murder us anymore. You made us. We gave you everything, and this is how you repay us?_

_You say we're monsters… Maybe that's true. But you made us. And you're the ones slaughtering us like rabid animals now while we run for our lives. How many of us have begged for our lives before one of yours pulled the trigger or beat us to death? How many of ours have done the same to you? Answer me that._

_Animals don't beg. They don't converse over what's for dinner or how their days went or argue over who ate the last Little Debbie when there's a siege._

_We are not animals. So we're asking for our chance._

_Will you be human enough to give it to us?_

* * *

"How do you think that went?" Asha asked Logan.

"Only time will tell. The X series is an easier sell than the others. I have a feeling that they're the main concern. Xs can blend into the population and breed. We're going to have to play on that," Logan said.

Asha could tell that he was still thinking about Max from the distracted look on his face. She could've reminded him about Alec being there to look after Max, yet she chose not to. Things were better this way. It was time for them to move on, to be with people they belonged with. Asha had poorly tried to hide her joy when she first heard that Max and Alec had finally hooked up. It had only been a matter of time in her head. They belonged together.

Finally, she and Logan would have their chance. They couldn't rush into anything yet, he was still reeling from the loss. That was one of the things Asha loved about him, how deeply he felt things. It would have to be slow. She could live with that.


	5. Chapter 5: Nobody Wins

A/N: Okay, so on to the clichéd M/A hook up sequence. I beg forgiveness for my lack of originality here, but how they got together wasn't really what the focus of this piece became. It's the impact of what their getting together does to the people around them. I guess I was just kind of like – okay, there are lots of great stories about how they get together, but how does everyone else around them feel about it really? And there is where it strayed from my original intent.

A/N 2: The timeframe here gets really fuzzy. A lot of things happen over a period of time which I kind of glaze over because they're kind of irrelevant to this set up. Sorry, I'll try to clear up the timing of things in the story.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Nobody Wins**

The U.N. deliberations took another long four months. It seemed like the world was standing still until then. Secret supply runs, internal unrest and the occasional rescue missions all seemed like a hazy dream-like events for the residents of Terminal City. White was lying low for the time being as well. It was no time to draw attention to himself. That gave the transgenics time to plan what to do if their case had failed. Strategic escape plans had been formulated as well as places for them to hideout if the tide was not in their favor. If it was in their favor… well, they weren't holding their breath on that one.

Then the day came when the doors finally opened with a verdict.

The transgenics had proven themselves to be intellectual beings, and to deny them their rights even in such times of economic crisis. Also it meant not having to deal with property laws when other countries tried to acquire transgenics.

But only the X5, X6, X7 and X8 series were given 'human' status. Many sympathizers had found their sentiment was mostly with them due to their outward appearance, superior bodies and immense intellect. They had the appearance of puppies that could be taken home. It wasn't like the bias wasn't unforeseen. The transhumans would have to be dealt with separately, sorted on a case by case basis.

Until it was decided how the transgenics would be introduced to society, they were all to remain in Terminal City. The police blockade was to be lifted. Government agents were still allowed to capture transgenics outside of Terminal City and promptly assist them to their residence. Charitable donations would be left for them by whoever wanted to give, along with a few government leftovers.

Mole wasn't too happy about the way things had gone down, but it was satisfied to know he wasn't officially wearing a bull's eye anymore. And Terminal City was officially theirs. That would have to do for now. She had been so angry with the verdict that she had taken it out on Logan, so the air between them was far from clear.

She wasn't going to let go of the issue until it had an actual resolution. Standing on the roof of the tallest building in TC, Max watched as the majority of the police vacated the perimeter. There were still some guards left, of course there would be. The TV crews stayed in full, if not growing, force. This was good news and no one would be losing interest soon.

When would the X series come out? Would they assimilate into the population? Could they breed their extraordinary qualities into the rest of humanity?

The reporters didn't know that the transgenics, human-looking or not were wary of permanently leaving their sanctuary now that everyone on the planet knew who they were. Foreign agents, religious fanatics, a distrusting public, and mad scientists of all shapes and sizes were waiting for their chance to snatch one of them and have their wicked way. It wasn't that the transgenics wouldn't ever leave Terminal City but they would have to be careful. Too many people still wanted them, and not in a good way.

* * *

_Seven months later…_

It was the day they had all been waiting for. The day that they would all be registered as U.S. citizens and the government would have to take responsibility. Even though the transhumans had been given a subhuman "hybrid" status that prevented them from having full rights and they wouldn't be allowed out of Terminal City without supervision by local authorities. It wasn't like anyone would roll out the welcome wagon for the X series either. Still there was something to celebrate.

Max thought about going to see Logan. They hadn't really seen much of each other during the whole ordeal. And she was supposed to be with Alec… She'd almost forgotten about that since they didn't need to pretend for the residents of Terminal City. Even though she wanted to leave, her face was everywhere and she was forced to stay in during supply runs. Now she could go out there. With Original Cindy, Sketchy, even Normal were out there waiting for her. She would be fooling herself if she thought this would be the same as before. Then she thought about Alec. Why had she kissed him? She still loved Logan.

It was a quick peck. She had almost forgotten all about it until now. Max's imagination replayed the scene in her head quite slowly as she prepared to go to the party in the apartment she had to herself. She wondered if she should have let him go farther that day. She was sure she would've forgotten everything about the outside world if she just –

"Oh no," Max choked out as she looked at her flushed complexion in the mirror.

Manticore had taken care of her heat problem. If she had been there from childhood, it would have been completely regulated by now and after the heart surgery her body could only take so much more. But they had just put her on some drug that had kept it at bay Alec later told her. Renfro wasn't hung up on whether or not Max got pregnant, she needed Eyes Only which was why she didn't even put Max through full re-indoctrination. Max had thought that the drug was a permanent fix since she didn't suffer from the cycles anymore. The current situation was proving otherwise though. It was just her luck that it would decide to rear its ugly head out at a time like this.

Sleeping pills. Hadn't she used them to get some rest when nightmares haunted her during the siege? There had to be some leftover in the bathroom. It took more than the average dose to put her under, but she'd have to do it to keep herself out of trouble. She was starting to feel restless. There was only enough to put a regular human under and she just felt drowsy enough not to go out looking for trouble, but was unable to actually sleep. The heat usually gave her more energy.

There came a knock on the door a few hours later. She should have known that someone would come looking for her. And right when the sleeping pills were starting to wear off. She pleaded with some divine force of the universe to let it be Syl or Jondy.

"Max?" called the voice from the other side of the door. "Max, are you in there?"

It was Alec. Of course it was Alec. Things had been going too well in her life at this point for anyone else to have been there.

She was so tempted to open the door for him. He had such a pretty face. And the rest of him wasn't so bad either. She pinched herself. The last thing she needed was to ruin a perfectly good fake relationship. There had to be something to turn her off. Ben. If she slept with him it would be like sleeping with her brother. And not just any brother, Ben, the brother that she had killed to save.

"Fine, be like that," Alec said. "No cake for you."

"I'm not feeling well," Max choked out.

Wrong choice of words. Way to make him suspicious. Maybe she should've called OC and have her talk her out of the million stupid ideas going through her head at the moment.

"Look, I know you're upset that this only worked halfway. But it's better than nothing. So, I suggest you haul your ass out here and show them some freaking support," Alec said.

"Go away!"

Max got off the couch and moved closer to the door. She could hear him pacing in front of it. She tried to relive those final moments with Ben. The light leaving him. She did that.

It wasn't working though. She remembered how comforting Alec had been about it all. How it was their secret that no one else knew.

What was one more secret anyway?

"You know I'm here if you need me," he told her as the door flew open.

"I need you," she said, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling his head to hers.

"What the—?" He grabbed her by both hands. Then he felt it. Her skin was burning up and now his was too as he remembered the part of him that was very feline. "Oh no. No. Not now?"

He pushed her back into the apartment and shut the door.

She didn't have to do this. She had fought it off before. But god, it had been too long since she'd last been touched, really touched since they'd been caged in. And it wasn't like she and Logan could touch any time soon either. Nothing was holding her back.

"Zack is going to love this," Alec declared.

"Zack?" questioned Max.

What was with her and brooding blonds? Hot, brooding blonds. But Zack was her big brother. She couldn't look at him like that.

"Yes, Zack. Your overprotective cyborg brother with the hots for you," Alec said.

"Right," she said and pushed closer to him. "Can you do me a favor and shut up? Kind of killing the moment by mentioning him."

"Whoa there," he said, dropping her hands. He willed himself to pull away though found himself planted in the spot. He had forgotten what this was like. He hadn't felt this way since he was twelve. Damn hormones, he thought he'd outgrown this. There were plenty of times he'd been uninterested in Max. Until she got angry and he just wanted to… "Your head's not in its right place right now… Hell Max, you can guess what this is doing to my head and I don't want you to beat my ass when it is."

"Well, we'll deal with that later," she informed him, gracefully inching closer.

"Oh what the hell, you'd beat my ass either way," Alec sighed. "Might as well actually do something to deserve it this time. It's been too freaking long locked up in here."

"God, don't you ever shut–" she started to say but his mouth enveloped hers and sucked out the rest of the sentence.

He definitely didn't want to hear anymore fully composed sentences from her. He'd get enough of those once the night was over. Right now, there were better things he could do with her.

* * *

"Has anybody seen Max?" Zack demanded in the Command Center.

It was late in the morning, but everyone was still tired from last night's celebrations. So they were taking things easily. Well, as easily as anyone who was raised by a Black Ops military agency could be.

A supply run had been scheduled before the news broke. Max had planned it out, and decided she would be the one to lead it on the outside for once when she found out she could leave TC. It was an hour before she was supposed to leave. Where was she?

Zack hadn't seen her last night either, but he had opted to stay in the Command Center and watch the security cameras instead of joining in the festivities. He wasn't in the mood to party. He'd done it before when he was younger, but he'd felt obligated to watch over everyone. Dix had been so excited to go, so Zack insisted on taking his place. So he was completely aware of Max's lack of presence there for the longest time.

"You're free and all you Xs do is bitch and whine about everything not being exactly the way you want it. She'll turn up," said Mole in an exasperated tone of voice. "Maybe she overslept?"

"Max doesn't sleep in," Zack snapped. "I'm going to see if she's all right."

"Knock yourself out," Mole said.

Zack rolled his eyes and left the Command Center. That slacker with Ben's face wasn't around either. He could imagine a guy like Alec high-tailing it out of Terminal City once the coast was clear without so much as a peep. If he was gone, Zack couldn't care less. All for the better. With him out of his hair, Zack was sure things would be better. Max would listen to reason. To him.

He wasn't sure if Max had gone off on the run by herself after being restless last night. She would do something like that. And she hadn't even dropped by the Command Center to see him. Syl and Jondy hadn't seen her that night either and knew better than to chase after her when she didn't want to be found. Still Zack wanted to check in on her to make sure everything was all right.

When he knocked on her door, there was no answer. He was starting to get worried. He needed to know if she'd gotten herself into trouble… If he had to get to her before it was too late. His hand turned the doorknob and entered the tiny apartment.

Stepping in and seeing no one, he called out, "Max?"

* * *

Max shifted uneasily on her bed. Something was off. Her head was cloudy and tired, but she could swear she heard someone call her name her clearly.

Something groaned beside her. No, it was someone. She quickly sat up.

Alec.

She had slept with Alec.

She was going to kill him.

He was sleeping soundly on his stomach when she smacked him across the back of the head.

He groaned and looked up at her glare with an annoyed yet curious look that Max swore reminded her of a housecat. Damn feline DNA.

"So this is where you've been?" Zack demanded as he stood in the doorway. "But I really should've guessed."

Max turned away from Alec and pulled the bed sheet closer to cover herself more. Great. Just great. Could this morning get any worse?

"Get out! Both of you get out!" Max shouted angrily as she tried to push Alec out of bed, but he was tangled in the sheet she clung to. As he landed on the floor, she ended up pulled down with him by the sheet and fell on top of him.

"With pleasure," Zack said. "We have a supply run in an hour, if you didn't get all your brains screwed out last night."

"Out!"

He had already turned away from the two of them trying to disentangle themselves. That was a visual he could live without.

It took two kicks and several choice words before they were free of each other. Alec silently picked his clothes off the floor and put them back on. Max turned her back to him and said nothing as well. Clothed in the bed sheet, she stalked off to the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

* * *

At the Command Center, the recreational television set was on the fritz. Again. It had been some act of divine mercy when the transgenics discovered that the old cable TV lines were still operational in the abandoned sector. According to Alec, it was the only thing that kept him from going on an insane killing spree after being cooped up with them for so long. Mole, Joshua, Dix and Luke had a feeling that he wasn't the only one.

The friends had taken to watching daytime soap operas to pass the time when they weren't waiting for the other foot (or bomb) to drop and being hungry. But the set that they had to watch was one of the more decrepit ones since the best were used for surveillance. The picture was a bit fuzzy even for HD.

"Dix, check the wires," Luke said.

"No, you go check the wires! This is the good part!" Dix replied.

"Don't make me shoot you idiots for not shutting up. Fix the damn thing already!" Mole chimed in.

There was funny buzzing noise that kept getting louder and louder until suddenly a few sparks stared popping out and the picture went with them.

"No!" they all cried out at once.

"Will Angelo find out that Maria slept with Dax?" Mole demanded.

The door to the Command Center slammed open and in walked Alec. Zack was hot on his heels, yelling about something or the other. It wasn't unusual.

"I didn't realize that Second in Command literally involved getting under the CO," Zack shouted and suddenly everyone was looking at them.

That was unexpected. Okay, not really. But that didn't make it any less fun to watch.

Alec turned to face him. "Maybe if you'd stuck around Manticore long enough, you'd know a helluva lot more."

"No fighting," Joshua intervened, stepping between them. "Where's Max?"

"This is better than TV," whispered the transgenic with the monocle.

"Ssshhh," hissed Mole. "I don't wanna miss this."

"Why don't you ask Romeo over here?" was Zack's retort.

Joshua sniffed Alec. "Who is Romeo? And why does Alec smell like Max?"

Then a knowing look crossed his face.

Alec stepped away from him. "That's it. I'm out of here. I don't need this. Tell Max to take you on the supply run."

"Shirking your duties? Just go. She and I can do this without your help. Nice to see you give up your position so easily," Zack spat at him.

A wicked grin crossed Alec's face. "I can hold my position just fine. Maybe you should worry about your own. I have some business to take care of."

The computer screen in the corner started blinking as Alec turned to exit the Command Center.

Logan was trying to get a line through, but no one was picking up. Where were they?

Finally, Joshua's confused face appeared on the screen.

"Hey there Josh, how's it going?"

"Not so good. Alec smells like Max. Zack and Alec fighting," said the dog-man.

The smile faded from Logan's face but he regained his composure. Why did he seem surprised to hear that? She was with Alec. The fact that Zack had a problem with it – equally unsurprising. The more Logan thought about it, the more amused he was by it. Zack and Alec were rivals. Then he remembered what they were rivals for and he almost cringed.

They were hyped up X5s and he was just some guy. How could he ever stand a chance against them for Max's attention?

By the time Max arrived, Logan had hung up with Joshua. Both of them didn't want to talk much about the awkward situation they had stumbled upon. She had been glad she missed having to see Logan after the night she had. Not that she owed him any explanations. They weren't like that. But she did feel guilty that he had to hear about it. That all of TC had to hear about it.

Relieved as Max was about not having to go with Alec on the supply run, she was just as pissed at Zack for having made the scene Joshua had informed her of. She told him that he wasn't allowed to go with her before she ended up saying or doing something they'd both regret.

Something told her things in her life just got way more complicated.

Transgenics get rights, but only the X series is considered human and are granted the ones that matter.

The one night she was supposed to spend celebrating that lame ass success, her heat decided to make its return.

After two years of not getting any, she finally got some only to have her big brother walk in on the morning after.

What would have happened with Alec if Zack didn't come in? She didn't want to think about that because she didn't have a clue.

What was she going to do now?

Didn't she ever win?

* * *

A/N 3: Well, as I was typing this a couple of things came up: 1) This made very little sense in its original form so I had to make some edits because it was so random that even I didn't get it. 2) I wrote this before I actually started reading the stuff here, and decided that I didn't want Alec to fight Max when she went into heat. The original was that he wasn't affected by her pheromones and tried to stop her, but in the end gave in with her pleading with him. I decided to change that because he's often given this whole long thing about not wanting to give in, which there are remnants of. Then I was like it's Alec, like he'd spend all that time trying to stop her. He'd just give in. Bear in mind, both of them could've stopped themselves but chose willingly to go with it.

A/N 4: Wow, I guess this drabble was way longer than I thought.


	6. Chapter 6: Secret

A/N: Okay, I never wrote out this whole scenario about the Coming. At the time I was a bit fed up with that whole subplot, so I glazed over it. The synopsis just explains how the next scene comes to take place. I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do, so it's a bit all over the place. I know I shudder when I realize how raw and jumbled this was. I don't ever recommend that one stop writing for a few years. But I sort of needed it and didn't have choice in the matter.

A/N 2: To those of you who've kept reading, thanks! I do appreciate it. I do my best to patch this up for public consumption, but I don't want to rewrite it. Not yet anyway.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Secret**

Three months later, Max defeated the attempts of the breeding cult. Her "special powers" were activated when the Comet came which were visions and telekinesis, along with the antibodies to the virus. The fact that the cult had given her the snake blood was how she had developed immunity to it. Had they not exposed her to it, she never would have been able to stop them since her body had not been forced to create the antibodies and recognize the signals of things to come. So the breeding cult had fulfilled its own failure.

When she recovered from the battle, it was discovered that her body dispelled the retrovirus along with the plague White and his merry band of maniacs were waiting for.

She and Alec avoided the topic of that evening they spent together, pretending that it never happened because they preferred to keep things less confusing between them. Plus there wasn't much time with the Familiars plotting.

With the virus out of the way, Max told Logan that she had not really been seeing Alec the entire time as she wanted him to believe. At first Logan was upset, but he was also eager to move on after having lost so much time with her. They immediately moved into an apartment together not too far from Logan's old building, though Max still spent much of her time working on the transgenic cause.

Max and Logan went together to Washington, D.C. to speak on behalf of the transhumans and to give financial aid to Terminal City residents, who were not having an easy time finding jobs with small children to support. She hadn't been feeling too well during the trip and assumed it was food poisoning. But when the symptoms didn't fade, they decided to visit Dr. Shankar as soon as they returned home.

"Max, you're pregnant," Dr. Shankar informed her with a smile when the blood tests had come back.

"What?" Max choked out. Of all the things she thought it could've been, this wasn't one of them. She had imagined that there was another glitch in her Manticore programming that had finally decided to manifest itself. A side effect of having the power Sandeman gave her. Heck, maybe she'd finally caught some new superbug that evolved in TC. But not this.

This was all too sudden. Hadn't they just gotten back together? She loved him, but she was hoping to have some time to relax now that the storm had blown over. She wasn't ready for this. They had been careful for the most part. How could this have happened?

She looked at Logan who was equally shocked. When he saw the trepidation in her eyes, he simply smiled and squeezed her hand reassuringly. This wasn't a bad thing. For once, it was good news. Their lives were coming together.

"We can do another test to figure out how far along you are," the doctor went on.

Max nodded with a nervous grin. Another person was going to commandeer her life from now on. She was allowed to freak a little.

Logan wasn't sure what to say. He was so happy in spite of the unexpectedness of the news. Words didn't seem to express all the things he was feeling right in this instant. He couldn't stop smiling either. His life was absolutely perfect. He had everything he had ever wanted and then some.

"Things are finally looking up," Logan whispered in Max's ear as Dr. Shankar drew another blood sample. He kissed the top her head.

Max caught the infectious smile he sported. She hadn't let go of his hand the entire time.

The idea of having a child had never seemed real to her before. The last time the issue had come up was back at Manticore when Alec had been sent to her cell. Even then she wasn't considering that she could really someday be someone's mother. She had made sure the notion stayed somewhere remote by kicking him into the door.

The memory of Alec grabbing her by the hands and shoving her into the apartment flashed through her mind. A flood of limbs and groans and gasps filled that night. She let go of Logan's hand when Dr. Shankar came back. It was an easy excuse not having to look into his eyes knowing what she had done.

It didn't count. They weren't together at the time. Not for a long time. She had told Logan that she and Alec weren't really together and they weren't, barring that one night. And Logan had let her get away with heat induced stupidity in the past, when they were on the verge of being together. Then why did she still feel guilty?

She and Alec had conveniently pretended it didn't happen. They were good at pretending that things were all right, even when they weren't. Everyone in Terminal City knew or at least suspected though. They also knew better than to go fishing for emotional baggage, including Zack. If Max and Alec didn't want to talk about it, then it was no one's business. Plenty of them used each other for sex on occasion. Plenty of them had used Alec for sex, and most of them didn't even go into heat in the first place. Only Max, Syl and Jondy still had that problem. But Syl had Krit. And Jondy had a don't ask, don't tell policy.

Logan had never asked.

It was two hours before Dr. Shankar had the second set of results.

"Well, everything looks good," she said as she looked between the charts and the expectant parents. "You're four months along, so I'd say that you'll deliver around the first week of January around the second or third."

"Four months?" Logan swallowed. He did the math over and over in his head. He and Max had only been together for two months and a week.

"Yes. But I'm guessing that because of Max's irregular cycle that's probably why you didn't pick up on it sooner," the doctor said. Then she saw Max's ashen face and that Logan moved away from her. "Is there something wrong?"

"We've only been together for two months," Logan explained, his face was a stone wall.

Dr. Shankar's jaw almost hit the floor, but she remembered her position. "Maybe I should leave the room."

"If you want," Max replied.

She walked out and shut the door behind her.

"Is there something you'd like to tell me?" Logan demanded.

Max shook her head as if she hadn't heard him. "No. No it can't be. She has to be wrong."

"So what? X5s have a shorter gestation than the average human being? Wait, that wouldn't explain why Gem had Eve nine months after you toasted Manticore…" he tried to rationalize out loud. But every theory pointed back to one glaring option that he didn't want to think about. "Were you with someone else?"

She ignored him and kept shaking her head. Then she began crying. But he grabbed her by both shoulders. "You were locked up in Terminal City the whole time. Let me guess. Four letters? Starts with Starts with A? Because he can't fake being someone without screwing them if I remember correctly."

"Logan, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen. Neither of us did," Max cried.

"Then how exactly did it happen? Because you told me nothing happened!"

"I went back into heat while I was there. Too much cat in my cocktail, remember? Too much in his too. We couldn't help ourselves… It was just that one time! It was one stupid night!"

Logan had turned his back to her. His gaze fell on a tray of medical utensils on the table next to her. He shoved it hard onto the floor, its contents clanging against the linoleum floor. If only she had said any other X5's name, it wouldn't have stung so much. If she had said it was Zack, the words wouldn't have cut as much. She told him nothing happened with Alec. Alec was just an excuse to keep him safe. How could he have believed that? How could believe her now when she said it had only been one night?

It didn't matter if it was just one night or every night since Manticore had instituted its twisted little breeding program. She was having Alec's kid, not his and there was nothing that really mattered more than that.

"I don't care why!" snapped Logan angrily. "You—you told me you weren't with him. You lied to me! The only reason you're telling me now is because you got caught. So what was he? Some fill in to take out your sexual frustration on while I was pining away for you like an idiot? You decided to play musical bedmates like the rest of your pals in Terminal City? You think I didn't know what they were up to?"

Max got annoyed at him. He wasn't listening. And who was he to judge what other people did during the siege? None of them knew if they would see the sun the next day. No one on the outside wanted them for anything except experimentation and slaughter. What did he know about that? But that wasn't the issue. "It was a mistake. It was one time. I swear. I didn't sleep with anyone else."

"For your baby's sake I hope that's true, because having one of those cheerful X5s for a father isn't bad enough without knowing which one it is," Logan said. "I'm an idiot. I should've seen this coming a mile away. But I'm sure Renfro is smiling from her grave at her great matchmaking skills."

She slapped him across the face to make him stop. His face turned from hers.

That last sentence was just cruel. So that was how he really felt about her family? They were all hedonistic sociopaths? Well, difficult situations always brought out people's true colors.

"Don't forget to call Alec with the good news. I'm out of here," said Logan when he recovered and looked dead in her eyes. "Best of luck. You'll need it."

He walked out of the examination room. All Max could do was watch. This was the last straw.

Any hope of them being together was gone.

Only half an hour before their lives had been perfect. Ten minutes ago they had been thinking about being forever bonded by another person. Countdown to when it all fell apart.

Now everything was screwed up, forever this time.

Where did things go from here? Did she pack up and move out of Logan's place? Move back to Terminal City? To Alec? What was she going to do about Alec anyway? She couldn't raise the kid alone.

There were just too many things to think about.

* * *

A/N 3: Seriously, I don't know what the deal with this scene is. It was supposed to be part of Chapter 5 but that one was getting too long. Then I added it to Chapter 6, then in trying to disentangle the mess that it originally was I got this. Now I have to shift the Chapters around again. Oh well, I guess this is just the way the story wants to be so who am I to argue?

A/N 4: The reason I posted this story was to get the courage up to actually give my writing public exposure. Until now, almost no one has seen more than perhaps a page or two of my writing and I want to change that. So I'm building up courage here. (By the way, my thing still stands about criticism. It's never pretty but if helps a writer grow, then go for it.)


	7. Chapter 7: I Can't Stay Away

A/N: So here's the next installment

A/N 2: I looked over the chapter and decided that I didn't like it. It didn't live up to Chapter 6. So after I posted it, I pulled it down for a serious overhaul. I broke. I'm rewriting. My wonderful readers and this story deserve better. After looking it all over, I got a bunch of ideas how I wanted it to go in another direction.

* * *

**Chapter 7: I Can't Stay Away**

Numb. The whole world had gone numb when Max walked out of the clinic.

She couldn't go back to the apartment. He could be there and she couldn't face him. If he wasn't there, it would only remind her that she had lost him forever.

After everything that they had gone through, all the heartbreak and the suffering, there was still so much more left to go? Love sucked. Big time.

How were they supposed to work through this? How could she ask him to forgive her because of her freaky DNA again?

Home. She needed to get home, back to Terminal City, to other people with freaky DNA who would understand. Zack would never turn her away. Her family wouldn't leave her on her own.

There was also someone else in Terminal City that she had to face.

Alec.

They had never really been like that. Even he had agreed that the whole evening had been an error in judgment from the way he behaved afterwards.

Did he have to be such a bastard and show up that night? Did he have to give in? She was going to make him pay for that when she saw him. He was going to pay for screwing up her life again. The idea of taking out her anger on him was the only thing that prevented her from crying. It was the only thing that gave her the strength to go back to Terminal City to face anyone.

* * *

"Well, look who's back from the dead," Mole said when Max walked into the Command Center of Terminal City. He bit down on a new cigar.

"Mole, what can I say? Once isn't enough," Max told him. "Where are the idiots I supposedly left to run this dump?"

Zack and Alec had both been her SICs and she didn't trust either of them to run Terminal City on his own in her absence. Zack would probably turn the place into a boot camp. Alec would in all likelihood start a transgenic cage-fighting business and casino. So to keep them in check, she had left both of them in charge. It hadn't gone over well. Zack was a natural leader and Alec was a natural dissenter. But together, they balanced each other out. They balanced her out.

When Zack gave orders, people tended to listen. Alec was the one who surprised her when it came to getting people do what he wanted through charm and manipulation. Many of the transgenics in Terminal City found him appealing and had seen him fight alongside them. Zack was a rigid newcomer and 09er. Between the two of them, they had managed to create a strong administration in Max's absence. Separately, they probably would have failed at it.

She also cared about both of them deeply.

Then she remembered that Alec was half the reason she'd come back. She didn't want to see him though. After spending the last few days hoping to wake up and discover it was all a very bad dream, that it was Logan's baby. In some part of her mind, they were still getting married and preparing for one of those blissfully bland normal lives. This was some temporary visit to check on Alec and Zack who were now running the Terminal City show. Of course that wasn't how things were.

"You looking for the Corporal and Princess? Good question. Maybe they've finally decided to square off and kill each other. Nah, Alec woulda sold tickets for that. So I'm thinking they've turned in for the night," Mole told her.

"Little Fella!" Joshua exclaimed before she could reply and picked her up in a hug.

"Hey Big Fella," Max greeted him with a genuine smile.

She wasn't sure why, but simply seeing him was enough to make her feel a little better about the situation. It made her remember that she wasn't alone. Luke and Dix were with him as well and she embraced them both.

"Where's Logan?" asked Joshua, looking around.

Mole looked at her curiously. "Oh, that's why I'm not itching to shoot something."

Logan and Mole had never been on good terms. It hadn't improved when Max decided to go off to D.C. with him. Mole was distrustful of all ordinaries in general, according to him they were just great for live target practice and the only thing that kept him from taking aim at Logan was his respect for Max. He would probably be glad to know Logan wouldn't be coming around any time soon, but saddened to know that he hadn't gotten to shoot at him.

"Uh… Logan had some stuff to take care of," Max said simply. "I'm beat. We just got back today. I'm going to head over to my place to crash."

"And of course you thought we'd burn down the place in your absence?" Mole asked.

A wave of relief hit when she realized that they had accepted her lame excuse.

"Burn it down? I didn't take you guys as lacking originality in your destructive behavior," Max said with a coy look. "I leave this place and it all goes to hell."

"This place was a crapshoot. Hell would be an upgrade," Luke chortled.

Max managed to laugh at that. Somehow being with them made her problems feel like a million miles away. If only it wasn't two blocks away and across the hall from her place.

"Well, we'll have to see about that," Max replied and walked out.

A wicked smile crossed Mole's face. "Okay, pay up boys. Told ya the ordinary wouldn't keep her satisfied. Don't call 'em ordinary for nothing."

* * *

She was supposed to go straight to her apartment. That was the original plan. She had realized that she didn't feel like talking to anyone for a long time. Not talking meant not having to tell them what happened. And what happened had left her a shell of her former self, which she didn't want them to see. The one person she really wanted was gone from her life forever.

Then how did she end up standing in front of Alec's door instead of hers? She had stormed into his apartment unannounced plenty of times, knocking wasn't part of Manticore etiquette classes.

Then why didn't she just do it?

The urge to open the door and beat him senseless conflicted with the one to cry in his arms.

She looked at her watch. He probably wasn't even asleep yet.

What was she afraid of? She was not afraid of Alec McDowell. She had gone there to kick his ass for screwing up her life. Again. Why had she thought that things had changed? He'd taken advantage of a very bad situation and he'd been lucky she didn't off him then and there.

Well, she supposed that was a good thing for the kid. She was going to make sure Alec took full responsibility for the mess he had gotten them into. They had never known their parents, at least her baby would get the chance to. Even if Alec was a walking magnet for trouble. The thought still seemed surreal to her. That she would be someone's mother, have to watch out for it and protect it.

A low moan interrupted her thoughts. Then her ears picked up on the shout of Alec's name through the door.

Rage flooded her. Of course. Alec never missed the chance to whore himself out. He was just as irresponsible and self-involved as ever. She could take a guess at which member of his fan club had gotten an exclusive with him tonight.

"Max?"

Max almost jumped out of her skin, then spun around to attack the person behind her. But the other person quickly moved out of the way.

"Jondy?"

Max's older sister grinned at her.

"The one and only," she said and wrapped Max up in a hug. "What are you doing back so early?"

For a moment, Max thought about telling her. "Just making sure the place was in one piece."

Jondy stared at her. "And that one piece happened to be Alec's door?"

Damn it. Jondy was always the one who could read her better than anyone else.

"I'm starting to feel hurt than it wasn't my door you looked ready to kick down. Tell me one thing, is it because he's prettier than me?"

Max let out a sigh. Jondy's playfulness faded when she noticed Max's pained expression.

"I need some coffee," was all the dark-haired transgenic said and walked over to the door to her apartment. "And for the record, he is not prettier than you."

Something was more than just wrong. "Maxie, what's going on?"

* * *

"So, basically I managed to get myself knocked up by one of Terminal City's biggest sluts," Max had said in a disgusted tone. "You know, that's what I get for betting that he'd knock up someone before the Siege was over. Just didn't think it'd be me. Gotta love the irony."

"Oh Maxie," Jondy said solemnly and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I meet the one guy I want to spend the rest of my life with, and what happens? He gets shot and loses the use of his legs. Then when he can walk again, I get shot and then Zack shoots himself to save my ass. And don't get me started on the virus. Now this. Do you mind taking a shot at Alec? It only seems fair."

"As tempting as that sounds, I think you'll need someone to kick around when all those pregnancy hormones hit. And I don't think it'll be as satisfying to beat the crap out of anyone but the one who put you in that position."

Out of all the scenarios of she had come up with to punish Alec for taking advantage of her, that one hadn't crossed her mind. She wanted him to pay. He got to be with whoever he wanted while she was stuck with their kid. She would do all of the work and he'd still get to have the life he wanted. She lost Logan and there was no one who could replace him. It wasn't fair.

"Doesn't matter to me," Max told her coldly, then took a sip of coffee. "He's not going to know it's his."

"What?"

That would be the worst punishment of all. For Alec not to know the truth. Even if he didn't know, she would know that he would be hurting just as much as she was at the moment.

"You heard me. You're the only person here who knows. And I plan on keeping it that way."

"Uh, think that'd be kinda hard not to notice. I know Alec's not the brightest guy, but I think the weight gain would tip him off."

"Real funny, Jondy. But I'm not letting him know it's his. He's not going to help anyway, so why give him a reason to come by and harass me? We'll all be better off this way." The determination in her voice was supplemented by her straightening as she sat up.

Jondy sighed. "Max, you're just angry right now. You have to tell him."

"Not if I can help it. Besides, he was going to hand off any kid we made to Manticore when we met. I don't owe him anything. This kid is all mine as far as I'm concerned."

Jondy knew that there was no talking to Max when she was like this. But it was Max's life and if that was what she wanted, then so be it. She wondered if the others would buy into transgenics being capable of parthenogenesis. Now that would be something to scare the public with.

"So when's this kid's debut?"

"January," Max said quietly, placing a hand on her abdomen. "I'm going to need your help, Jondy. I can't do this alone."

Her older sister stared at her. "You're kidding right?"

When she saw Max's face fall, she laughed. "Of course I will. That's my little niece or nephew in there! And Zack'll be here. And Syl and Gem'll give parenting advice. You won't have to worry. What's family for if not to have them bail your sorry ass out of difficult situations?"

A tear slid down Max's face as she leaned forward and hugged her sister tightly. She didn't like anyone seeing her weak like this, but it was Jondy.

* * *

The next morning, Jondy went ahead of her to start her shift at Command. Max had been more tired than she thought and decided to sleep in late. Waking up wasn't one of her favorite things. This wasn't how her life was supposed to go.

She actually had no intention of leaving her bedroom. How had she let this happen? How had she let Logan slip through her hands again? What was he going to do? What was he doing? She had hurt him so badly, she robbed both of them of their future. She couldn't ask him to raise someone else's child, to see her infidelity day in and day out.

Renfro had been right about her bringing only suffering to those she loved. After having screwed up so much already, this kid was going to need a miracle to lead a decent life. That was why Max didn't want Alec in the picture. He was also in the business of royally screwing up as well. It was enough to make her wonder if the feline DNA came from a black cat.

There she was staring up at the dirty ceiling, counting the ways her life sucked when she heard the door to her apartment open. So much for staying in bed.

"Jondy, I told you – " she started to say when she walked into the living room, but stopped when she saw it wasn't Jondy who came by.

Alec smirked. "Mistaking me for Jondy? Really Max, I thought I was prettier."

She scowled at him. "What do you want?"

He plopped himself down on the couch. "I heard you came back. So where's my souvenir? You honestly don't think I do my job for the great salary and dental plan?"

"No, I figured it was so that you would have an office to line up cheap tramps at to make it feel more high end," Max shot back. It was taking every ounce of restraint not to beat him across the room. To tell him that he'd ruined her life again. "Get out. I'm tired."

Of course he didn't budge from his position. "Look, I came by because I've been hearing things and wanted to check on you. You know, see if I have to stop hosting strip poker in your office."

"You did what?"

Damn it. Mole and the others hadn't really bought her lame story. They were trained better than that. Now the whole of TC knew about her and Logan. Well, that would mean she'd have to work twice as hard at keeping them from finding out why.

"It was just that one time, I swear. But if what I heard is true, I'll set up another round for ya."

"How about you get off my couch, do your job and find someone else's life to ruin?"

Her words stung him. He hadn't expected her to be so caustic with him; they hadn't been that way in a long time. Then again, they'd been on the outs since that incident a few months back. What had he expected when he decided to find out why she was suddenly back home, Logan-free?

"Let's get something straight. I don't ruin your life. You make bad decisions or ones you don't fully think through, then I just happen to be in the same zip code, ready and willing to accept the blame."

"I'll remember that next time you're in mortal danger."

"Maybe you should."

"Just stay out of my way."

* * *

A/N 3: I just wanted to redo this chapter since it was already there, so this thing is on officially on hiatus as the thing says.


	8. Chapter 8: Heavily Broken

A/N: You guys are terrible. No, really I love that everyone had so much to say. Definitely got me thinking about the direction of the story. And I'll continue for you since you asked. No worries, Max and Alec will be together by the end but I make no promises about the filler. As for Alec being the chump, I was actually aiming away from that, which is part of why I'm rewriting. He just kind of accepted things too easily, but I plan to change that. And Max was not very bitchy about it either.

A/N 2: Secondly, the rewrite isn't of the chapters I've already posted, it's Chapter 6 and onwards are what have been rewritten because I decided to torture Max and Alec a bit more, they got off really, really easy. The people who were tortured were Zack and Logan, a lot of it was them rambling about how Max and Alec together ruined their day.

A/N 3: This is one of the original chapters. I'm having a bit of writer's block this week with _The XYZ Affair_ and this story, but I was going to keep this chapter anyway and decided to post it. Plus I'm supposed to be studying… puts on innocent face – Like I ever study.

So this is going out to throwerpro, 452max, Kya, elin1982, lilgreengurl, Kae, Kritick, and everyone else who added this to their lists.

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* * *

  
Chapter 8: Heavily Broken**

Logan just lay on his couch. He remembered when he thought she was dead. Lost to him forever. She was probably having sex with Alec then too.

If Alec couldn't so easily kill him, Logan would probably have gone over to Terminal City and beat the crap out of him. No, that was just the rage talking.

His one shot at absolute happiness had just been snatched from him.

This was exactly how the night Max came back from Manticore had played out. He had Max back and everything seemed perfect, then Alec stormed through the door and he collapsed from the virus.

Some days, Logan wondered if Alec, not the virus, had been engineered to destroy him. So far Alec had done more damage, taken his reason for living but not his life, which was worse he couldn't tell.

The last two years played out in front of him. He had imagined finding Alec was a stroke of luck, considering his experience with Zack. Alec was there to cover Max, and he seemed to follow her around enough instead of barking orders. Plus there was always some new amusing anecdote about him every week about his latest female conquest or screw-up or Normal's advances on the boy. Best of all, Max couldn't stand him. Or so it started.

Logan could have sworn they were dancing around each other after Alec saved her from their first encounter with White, then she saved his life by giving up the cure so his head wouldn't explode. Suddenly, they were tangled up in favors and being each other's back up. Wasn't that how she and Logan fell for each other? Saving each other?

That was how Logan fell for that ploy about them dating. Was it even a ploy? They had obviously been having sex. But sex wasn't love. Maybe it was just sex to them. God, he still didn't know what had happened. How much of it had been truth, how much had been lie? He was just more confused than ever. Damn it, Max had run him into twenty different circles about the last year. He cared about her so much and she didn't think twice about putting him through the wringer. He had done everything for her, only to have her choose someone else.

Maybe Zack hating him wasn't so incomprehensible. He was starting to see why Zack couldn't stand him back then. Too bad someone didn't tell them that she wouldn't end up with either of them and that they were fighting for nothing.

Did she even love any of them – Zack, Alec, Logan? And if so, how much? He would have to ask her the next time he saw her.

There was that thought again, back to haunt him. Next time he saw her. It was an elusive, non-existent point on the continuum. When would be the next time he saw her?

The day at the doctor's office was the last time he had seen her. He had wanted her out of his life as soon as possible. He never imagined wishing that she had just stayed at Manticore, so he could remember her without the burn of betrayal. She had probably gone running straight back to Alec. Of course she had. Maybe it was where she belonged after all, with her own kind. Logan had imagined that it never mattered, but it had. Now she was gone for good, into the land of Oz.

A reel of scenarios rolled through his imagination.

Maybe he could have just accepted Max's baby as his own. Anything like her was incredible, and he had no doubts her baby would be too. They would live together like everything was normal and he could pretend that Alec didn't exist. They could have gone on to have their own children and no one would have to know. But they would know – he would know. And he would have to look at that child every day, knowing the truth. For someone who spent his life defending the truth, that wouldn't work.

He couldn't ask Max to get rid of it and start over. He would feel as dirty as the criminals he exposed if he did that. Who was he to decide something like that?

No, it looked like the current situation was the best option at the moment. He needed to be as far away from her as possible to clear his head.

Then he thought about his job as Eyes Only. It was the reason Manticore wanted to kill the rest of him. If he had just been quiet about the place, there wouldn't have been any virus targeted at his DNA. He would have been the one fighting beside her, not Alec. In fact, Alec would have been long gone or dead. Logan didn't like finding comfort in that thought, but considering the circumstances, the moral higher ground here would even test a saint.

It was easy to hate Alec. Sociopath. Egomaniac. Hustler. Hedonist. Murderer. How did he end up as one of the patron saints of Terminal City? Hating Alec meant he didn't have to hate Max, the person who really perpetrated the crime. Alec and Logan weren't really friends, nor was Alec involved with someone else at the time. She had willingly gone with him. She chose to sleep with him rather than refrain, deny herself.

Logan had spent his life fighting the good fight. He was not into stealing from the bad guys, just about making them pay. He did what he could to make the world a better place.

A lot of good it did him between a scheming ex-wife and a cheating girlfriend. Herrero came to mind. Logan recalled his mentor, who died at the hands of his own daughter.

Maybe being a martyr wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Of course, one can't be a martyr without misery.

Misery. Was that what this was? It felt like an eternity that he just lay there, waiting to wake up.

Then he heard the door open. Immediately, he sat up hoping it was Max and that this had all been some terrible nightmare.

"Hello?" called a feminine voice.

He rushed to the door. Maybe it was Max. Maybe she had come home to fix things. But there was also the strong feeling that he couldn't bear to look at her either and wishing that she had just stayed away before she could do anymore damage.

Instead, it was Asha. She looked frightened of the state that she found him in. He hadn't shaved or showered in two weeks. Hell, he was even still wearing the same clothes that he'd worn the day his world fell apart.

"Logan? What happened? Where's Max?" Asha's voice was full of concern. This was completely out of character for him.

A drunken laugh erupted from him. "Gone."

"Gone? Gone where? Why?" asked Asha. "Is everything all right?"

"To Terminal City. Where she belongs," his eyes began to well up with tears. "We're done. After everything, we're done."

"Logan, just tell me what happened." She was tempted to grab him by the shoulders and shake the answer out of him, but his disheveled state made her afraid too. She didn't recognize him, didn't know what he could do.

"I'm an idealistic idiot, that's what! I… I don't even know where to begin," he said. "She's gone for good."

She helped him to sit back down. Looking around, she realized that he had bee like this for quite some time. It was painful to know that he didn't even think to call her for help. It wasn't like she hadn't seen this coming. Max and Logan could never stay happy for long. Max couldn't go long without doing something to rip him apart or put his life in peril.

What could have possibly gone wrong with them this time?

Maybe he was being overdramatic about some fight they had. But for Max to be gone, it had to have been a big one nonetheless.

"I'm sure that all couples hit a rough patch. Then they make back up," Asha pointed out. Even if she didn't really believe it, she wanted to make him feel better.

"You don't get it! She's having his baby! It's not mine!" Logan snapped. "How could she do this to me?"

"Whoa. Wait, Max is pregnant? And you're not the father? You two have been inseparable for the last few months. Then who is it?"

"Max decided to have some fun without me before the cure. In celebration of the transgenics getting rights, she took it as the right to sleep with Mr. Genetically Empowered."

Asha didn't have a long list of suspects. "Alec."

"Bingo! Someone get the lady a prize," he retorted.

"But I thought that was just pretending to keep you safe," Asha questioned him.

"Apparently the word safe didn't apply to sex they were having to keep me from keeling over and dying from the virus. You know, I'm not surprised about Alec. He'd sleep with anyone. But her? She said she loved me. If you love someone, how do you sleep with someone else?"

Asha didn't know how to answer that. It was one of those questions that didn't get answers, it was just there.

Hadn't she almost hooked up with Alec several times in spite of the burning devotion to Logan she felt in her heart?

Sometimes love wasn't strong enough to support the human weakness, instinct, call it what you will, for creature comfort. A year spent under lockdown could do a serious number on a person's view of right and wrong. A year spent not knowing if you'd be wiped off the face of the planet, you would try to spend every moment enjoying of what was most likely a tortured, lonely and short existence.

Plus, it wasn't like Max and Logan were still together at the time. Not that they were really ever together, which made the whole situation more convoluted. It didn't help much that Alec probably got some of his DNA from James Dean. Asha had even wanted to give into him when they lived on the outside.

If he and Max wanted to fool around, what reason didn't they have?

Asha didn't point that out though. She just put her hand on Logan's.

"I'm sorry," Asha told him genuinely. "Maybe this is the way things are supposed to be…"

"How can you say that? When the virus thing first happened, everyone was like 'You guys'll make it.' Ha," Logan began to laugh bitterly. "We gave up the cure to save Alec. You've got to love the irony."

"So what are you going to do now? Lay here on the couch? Forever?" asked Asha. "That's not going to bring her back."

"Right, so I'm supposed to continue fighting the good fight? No one has ever fought for me. She ran back to him the moment she could. She didn't even wait for me to come home and try to work things out. I haven't spoken to or seen her since that day. She just took her stuff when I wasn't here and left. How could she possibly love me if that's what she did?" Logan said, half talking to her and half to himself. He bit back the sob he felt building in his throat. "She didn't even leave a note."

"Logan, you need to sober up and get out of here. It's not going to make you feel any better. I'll help you clear your head," Asha promised.

* * *

A/N 4: The scene was Logan angst. (author ducks) I know, I left the story hanging, now I give you this but it's all I've got at the moment. (hides under table with pen, notebook and mp3 player)

A/N 5: I'll try to come up with something, but I've only got a few ideas and nothing written down. So, remember I'm trying to make the story better and more interesting while it's away.

PLEASE REVIEW! I know a lot of people have been reading, but people hardly say anything. It's not until I think to stop going that someone says something, and then I feel guilty for not continuing. Did you like it? What do you like? What don't you like? What would you like to see? I'm open to suggestions, since I'm reformulating my plot and rewriting it.

THANKS! :D


	9. Chapter 9: Insomniac

A/N: So I was trying to tie up _Just Another 48 Hours_ when this chapter spewed out of my head. I thought it was an interesting twist, and I also have an idea for the next chapter. I know it seems like I've gone off on a tangent from where I started, but stuff is actually going to go full circle if it goes the way I'm seeing it in my head now. I also realized that there's been no real Alec moments for a while, which is very bad because he's supposed to have a bigger role. Secondly, this is not Max being an evil bitch, she's just really hurt and scared, while trying to hide from it in typical Max fashion, i.e. converting it to anger. Don't be hard on her.

Thanks to: throwerpro, Shirley, 452max, quirkys, Mel, and meko (it was so nice you answered my questions, I was wondering about the OC thing and hopefully will get her some screen time).

Hope you like this!

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* * *

  
Chapter 9: Insomniac**

"Max, what're you doing?" asked Jondy.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Max shot back.

Jondy took in the sight of her sister hopping off the counter with the pliers aimed at her abdomen. She had heard pregnancy hormones made women do crazy things, but this hadn't been on the list in her head.

"Umm… Is there an answer that won't result in those pliers being used on me?"

Max scowled at her sister and tossed the pliers onto the coffee table. Her jeans were still unbuttoned. Heck, the zipper wouldn't even go up over the bulge of her stomach. The sad part was that they were the largest pair of pants she owned, and they weren't even hers. She'd just found them in the drawer of the vanity that came with the apartment when she moved in.

She hadn't anticipated the rapid weight gain occurring so quickly after returning home. A couple of things still fit, but most of her clothes were either stretched out or just plain couldn't go on anymore. It pissed her off to no end, because she didn't like feeling fat even though she knew it wasn't really that. Stupid Alec and his stupid DNA combining with hers. Oh, he should've been the one trying to climb into a pair of jeans that belonged to god knew who from god only knew when, not her. She made a mental note to spill something on his favorite jacket the next time she saw him. It wasn't fair.

"Nothing fits anymore!" whined Max, dropping herself onto the couch.

"Yeah. I think it's 'cause all your clothes were made to fit one person, not two," Jondy pointed out. She sat down beside her sister. "And hate to point out the obvious, but you're only gonna get bigger and bigger until you pop. Literally."

Max glared at her. "Really? I wouldn't've guessed. And thanks for that lovely visual. Some caring sister you are."

"Maxie." Jondy let out a sigh. "You've been home two weeks, acting like… I don't know, like nothing's changed. And you still haven't told anyone besides me that you're going on maternity leave. Zack and the others are gonna be pissed that you've been hiding this from them. It's not like they're not gonna find out soon."

The truth was that Jondy had no idea how to help her sister through this mess. Also she wasn't stupid enough to throw out the A-word this early in the game. She was used to being on her own until Zane had found her. Maybe one of the others could help Max, who she could see was being torn inside out by the whole situation. Jondy hated feeling helpless, so she filled the void with sarcasm. It was the only thing she knew how to do. Emotions weren't really her thing, and she'd spent a lifetime trying to keep the drama to a minimum. Of course, that apparently wasn't Max's policy.

"Maybe because I liked my crappy life the way it was to a certain extent, and I'd like to enjoy the last of it without everyone reminding me of the current predicament I'm in?"

The news had been hard enough to handle when she thought Logan was the father. The thought of being in charge of someone's entire existence was terrifying. It wasn't the same as running Terminal City or baby-sitting Alec. At least she momentarily had peace of mind knowing that stable, capable and responsible Logan would be there with her to help. Now it was someone she'd been playing psychological badminton with for the last two years. Someone she wasn't sure she wanted, but couldn't imagine her life without. Even if he was making it miserable.

Things with Alec were always complicated. There had been quiet moments she couldn't imagine sharing with anyone but him. Other times she suppressed the urge to grab him and choke the living daylights out of him. More than anything, she hated having to evaluate her relationship with him because it made absolutely no sense. Or maybe it made perfect sense, which would be far scarier.

Jondy rolled her eyes. "And this has nothing to do with Alec's new groupie?"

It was Max's turn to roll her eyes. Then she got off the couch and walked to the counter that divided the tiny kitchen and the living room.

"Hardly. It has everything to do with none of my pants fitting, and then having to tell everyone on the face of planet earth that the reason my pants don't fit is because I just really had to get some one night for the rest of my life."

She went into the cupboard and pulled out two cans of soda. The pants were still bothering her. The tightness was starting to cut off circulation to her legs. Oh, Alec was so going to pay for this. His favorite jacket would do a permanent disappearing act. "Ugh, can't one store be open at this hour so I could get a new pair of sweats or something?"

"It's three in the morning. I thought we liked having the night all to ourselves," Jondy said, taking the soda from Max as she sat back down. "Like to go out riding our bikes on the open highway… I'd like to kick your ass one last time. You know, before you can't reach the handles anymore."

"Keep dreaming, big sis. I could kick your ass, handles or not," Max said, smiling smugly.

"Really? Because I thought you were saving the ass kicking for Kaia."

Max shot her an evil glare. If Jondy wasn't her sister, Max wasn't sure what she'd do to her for all the things she said without thinking. And damn it, if Jondy didn't know that she would've kept her thoughts to herself.

Kaia was not Max's favorite topic of conversation to say the least. Even before the whole Jam Pony thing, Kaia had been one of the hold-outs on Oak Street that refused to band together with the other transgenics. She thought that the Xs were better and had no business dealing with the deformed transhumans. It wasn't until they were all barricaded in together did she relent some, because even she wasn't that stupid to think that she could survive on her own. Then when the Xs were able to come out, she had gotten used to her transhuman brethren and didn't want to leave them. Even if she still looked down on them. But she and Max had no reason to be around each other, so it didn't bother either enough to make an issue of it.

Now, Kaia would come by Command to see Alec. The girl walked around like she owned the place, knowing damn well that this was Max's yard. She was at his apartment all the time and Max had to bump into her. At first Max had tried to be civil, but Kaia had made some off handed comment about Max having a fat ass and walked away unharmed only because it'd be another squall with Alec. If she and Alec fought, Kaia would be standing there giving Max grief from the sidelines. It was that point that Zack would jump into protective big brother mode and threaten to hand Kaia her ass if she spoke to their leader and his sister that way.

To say it had been shocking to discover that Alec had moved on to Kaia in Max's absence wasn't something unheard around TC. It wasn't that he hadn't been dating the entire time there, but why her? Max couldn't stand her. Alec didn't even have an answer for it. Everyone else pretended they didn't know what was going on, then they would remember something that had to be done that very moment and run out of Command.

Max accused Alec of waiting until she was gone to start dating Kaia behind her back. Alec shot back that he didn't even think she was coming back to TC after she went off with Logan and had no right to tell him how to lead his life. That little argument had resulted in them not talking for a week, which drove everyone around TC, especially Zack who was their go between, insane. Eventually they worked their way back to mild civility before the others threatened a political coup. Mole mumbled something about Alec getting laid was always got somebody in trouble these days, then grinned wickedly. Joshua had told him to mind his own business and that Alec getting laid was always getting someone in trouble.

The only good thing that came out of it was that Alec had stopped trying to be her friend. He stopped asking about Logan, about why she was back, and when she planned on leaving again. And she didn't have to be civil to Kaia for his sake either.

"Like I care about that skank," Max said.

Jondy laughed. "Yeah, that girl should come with a punch card. Tenth ride free."

"Exactly Alec's type," Max said as a matter of fact. Exactly the reason why he and she would never work out. She wasn't the type he needed in his life except to save his sorry ass. "I feel like going for a walk. Enjoy the night the way normal people can't. Maybe harass a few drunks."

"Still pissed about the no alcohol thing?"

"Ya think?"

"Oh well, I like pissed off Max. She's more fun. Let's go."

Max grinned. "First, we need to find me a pair of pants."

"At three in the morning?"

"Isn't that half the fun?"

* * *

That was how they ended up at the community clothes bin.

Since the transgenics didn't have much, they had put together all the unwanted clothes in the basement of Command for others to take. It was stuff that had been found abandoned around the sector or things that had been outgrown or someone just didn't feel like wearing them anymore.

It had been one of Logan's ideas. Max would never forget it as she looked at the various boxes of clothes labeled by size. Sometimes it was the little things that reminded her of him, and she wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and die for being such an evil bitch to him.

Still she was surprised how easily she had made peace with losing Logan. Maybe it was all that practice from the virus. Maybe because she wasn't alone when left him, she was surrounded by the people she loved the most. Original Cindy was the only person who knew what happened besides Jondy, but they couldn't see each other much. They would see her through this.

How would she feel if she lost Alec?

Where'd that thought come from? She couldn't lose Alec. Even when she told him to get out of her life, he only reappeared a couple of weeks later to permanently set up shop. No, he wasn't allowed to go anywhere. He was one of the few constants in her life.

"Do my eyes deceive me, or is our eminent leader at the clothes bin picking out her next outfit?" Mole asked as he walked in behind him, cigar at its usual corner of his mouth. "Oh how the mighty have fallen."

Max rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Mole. Jondy and I are up to no good and needed something from down here."

She went over to the box with the sizes she wanted and began to sort through it looking for something semi-decent. She didn't have time for him.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he replied, but didn't move from his spot to look through the clothes. No, he was looking at Max.

"So what're you doing down here?" asked Jondy. "Checking out the latest fall fashions? I hear that moisturizing is in this season."

Mole eyed her evilly. If she wasn't Max and Zack's sister, he probably would have shot her at least once by now. Stupid Xs, they never did know when to shut up. But for some reason his attention turned to Max. There was something off about the girl these days. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but his eyes caught it. He had worked with her for two years. It wasn't just the usual post-Logan break-up snappiness. It was the way she moved, the way she reacted to things.

Then he saw the pair of pants she pulled out of a bin. A size much larger than he'd ever seen any X series girl wear, skinny little bitches. Yeah, then there was the whole getting a bit chunkier thing. She had looked half starved until lately. Now she looked like she was packing on the pounds. It was probably from eating all that Ordinary's cooking and Mole had just now realized it.

"Well, someone's been having too many Twinkies, haven't we?"

Max turned and stared at him. Did he really have to go there? Oh, he was so asking for it now. Especially when the real reason was… well, Max hadn't come up with the adjective she liked for the situation just yet.

Jondy was sure that Max would make Mole into a pair of new maternity pants for that comment. She decided to say something before Max could. "Did you just call a woman fat? Heck, you just called Max fat. Someone is definitely looking to be the next fall fashion sensation."

Not her best work, but it served its purpose.

"Don't you ever shut up?" Mole demanded, suddenly wondering if this was the reason why Renfro loved decommissioning Xs so much. Just to get them to shut up.

"Don't you ever wonder if you smell like some cowboy's roadkill dinner after smoking all of those cigars?"

Mole shifted his rifle. Now that was on par with telling a woman that she was packing on the pounds, if not worse because it send a six foot raging lizard man after you. Then again if you were an X5, this was just an everyday ritual to get the blood flowing. "Why I oughta –"

"You oughta take a bath. I'm starting to get that whiff of roadkill. Come on Jondy," Max said and grabbed her sister by the arm before Mole could examine Max more closely or get a better aim at Jondy.

Max ground her teeth in frustration. It looked like keeping this under the radar was not going to work for much longer. A faint feeling of déjà vu came over her. Like she was supposed to be wearing a weird frock with a scarlet letter painted on her chest. No wait, that was the pre-Pulse Demi Moore movie she and Jondy had watched the other night. But it seemed so similar, pregnant by the wrong man, the whole town of lunatics watching. Oh, this wasn't going to end well, was it?

"Oh, and Mole, for the record – it wasn't the Twinkies."

* * *

"Alec?"

Alec looked up from the documents he had been caught red-handed with in Max's office.

"Zack," he said disinterestedly and picked out a couple of pages from a file and put it back on her desk.

"What the hell are you doing here in Max's office at three in the morning?"

"Max and I aren't speaking, remember? Well, if we do speak it's in the form of incoherent yelling. Anyway, needed these and didn't want to ask," Alec told him, keeping his cool tone. "What you're doing at work at this hour is a better question. Seriously, you 09ers are such workaholics, Manticore should've been heaven for ya."

Zack stared him down. "I'm on nightshift, jackass. Give me a reason not to kick your ass for sneaking in here, then not hand you over to Max right after."

"Oh, so we're back to this again," Alec said, walking toward him. "Was there an 09er memo to revert to pre-Siege behavior toward Alec?"

"What are you talking about? We never got along." Then realization hit Zack like a ton of bricks. How could he be so stupid? "This is about Max?"

Alec tried to go out the doorway, but the bulky X5 blocked his way. He would've kicked him in the crotch and made a run for it, except Zack was stronger and knew where he was seventy percent of the time.

"Why? You want to talk about the major bitch fits she's been having at me since she got back? Or the fact that I'm done with her crap and just want to get my job done in peace? Yeah, let's have a chick moment about that."

Zack didn't budge. He crossed his arms in front of him, determination etched in him. Alec may not have been his favorite person, but still even he had to admit that Max was behaving strangely. Not really bitchier but more distant, which in Alec's book was the same thing when it came to her. After discovering the whole sex incident had been heat related, Zack promptly kept his comments to himself. Especially since Max and Alec had seemed to like acting like it didn't happen.

He wasn't sure what had happened between them since then, aside from the whole Kaia thing. Of course, Zack assumed that Kaia was just the only woman left that Alec hadn't slept with in Terminal City. And she was hot, even if she and Max didn't get along.

Max was probably down about Logan at first, and maybe a bit upset to have it rubbed in her face that someone else was in a relationship when her hurt was still fresh. That was a week ago. Zack was going to get to the bottom of it, because Logan Cale was the kind of guy it took a week to get over, tops.

"You're acting weird too."

Alec let out a sigh. "I'm leaving, okay? Haven't felt useful around here in a while, and I really want my world to be more than a abandoned toxic dump, all right? I was going to tell Max when she got back. Now it's all screwed up and I don't want to leave things like this. But I've been trying to organize things for the next chump to take this gig."

Of all the things Zack thought he would say, that wasn't on the list. It also rose to the number one spot of things he wished he didn't know. Damn, he really hated the nightshift.

"I'd appreciate it if you kept this to yourself. I haven't told anyone else yet. Kaia's been extra clingy lately and I was hoping to ditch her discretely, if you catch my drift. I don't do clingy, because then they start expecting stuff and you know that never ends well. Then there's Max. I have a feeling when I tell her it'll be another fight, and I'd rather not leave like that."

Zack nodded. "I'll see what I can do for you."

"Wow. So eager to get rid of me you pull the nice guy card? Should I be glad or terrified?"

"How about both?"

* * *

A/N 2: Yeah, this chapter was being difficult when I tried to edit it. Not sure I like it too much, but it served its purpose. Whatever that was. Damn this was long, no wonder it took forever. *whistles innocently, waiting for Chapter 10 to arrive and perhaps save this story*

And as always, I pander for reviews. So pretty please REVIEW, it means a lot.


	10. Chapter 10: Leave Me Alone

A/N: I've had this chapter sitting around for about a month now, since my other stories are more popular, they've had priority in posting. I'm also close to finishing Chapter 11. I think I'm a bit anxious to tie this story up because I'm no longer in the state of mind for it, and its end along with several other key scenes were already written.

Thanks to my reviewers, I really appreciate that you take the time to comment.

* * *

**  
Chapter 10: Leave Me Alone**

"You know, I didn't realize how much I needed this," Max said as she took another bite from her ice cream bar.

The late night stroll through the city had been like old times – times before the world knew what they were, times when they only looked out for number one. So much had changed since then. Max and Jondy had finally found each other. Their family was together again and they weren't running. It had been a long time since Max had prowled the Seattle streets during the night. It hadn't been since the Siege began. Even in the weeks before then, she hadn't really enjoyed the nights the way she used to. It was just business.

Nothing in the time she had been separated from Logan had been enjoyable. But now that she would be separated from him forever, she would have to learn to make the best of things. She was going to be a mother to a brand new person, and it had cost her Logan. Everything had its price, didn't it?

Jondy could tell there was a lot on her sister's mind; even all their years apart hadn't made Max less readable to her. What Jondy couldn't tell was what she could do to make her little sister feel better. There was no magic speech to fix this. So, Jondy went with the next best thing.

"I can't believe you stole a box of ice cream bars," Max said. It wasn't exactly taking from bad guys, but that was a lesson that hadn't stuck with Jondy no matter how much Max tried to impress it upon her.

"What? You don't want any?" Jondy asked as she tore open the cardboard box.

Max watched as Jondy pulled out an ice cream bar, then she snatched it from her hands before her sister could stop her. "You really want to get between a pregnant lady and her ice cream?"

"Good point. But just so you know, I'm not looking for new pants if you eat too many of these," Jondy told her. For the first time in weeks, she saw Max truly smile. She smiled too.

They continued down the street, eating freshly stolen ice cream bars. Max couldn't remember the last time she had ice cream, or the last time she had thoroughly enjoyed a night out. There was no one needing to be saved, no deal needing to be made. It was almost like when she had first come to Seattle, when she would sit on the Space Needle wondering where Jondy was. Now they were together, running through the night like she had wished so long ago.

It was strange how some wishes came true and how some had others had fizzled into tragedy. Then there were things she hadn't wished for… She wasn't sure if it was the flutter of her stomach or the new undeniable part of her life. Since finding out she would be a mother, she had gone through several different emotions which mostly revolved around losing Logan and hiding the truth from those around her. In that moment, the baby became a real part of her and she felt as though nothing in her life was more important. No one was more important. Would she disappoint it like she did with all the people she ever cared about? Only time would tell.

"Well, well, well. Look at what we've got here," came a voice from behind them, when Cindy's place was only a block away.

Max knew that it was just too much to ask that she have one night to enjoy with her sister. It was the most relaxed she had been in weeks, and now she would have to break her streak of non-violence since battling Familiars. She and Jondy turned around to see who it was that unwisely chose them to rob.

There were five boys no older than eighteen years old, dressed in the street uniform of baggy jeans, big shirts, baseball caps, and the smug expressions that came with trying too hard to be tough. Max suddenly realized that some of them were kids from around the neighborhood that took Japanese lessons from Kendra. So, this is what had become of them?

"Look, we aren't in the sharing mood and we are the last people in the world you wanna piss off, so I suggest you run along home to your mommies," Max said.

"Funny," said the tall one with red hair. "But we're not interested in ice cream, Max."

He pulled out a .09mm from behind his back. They maintained their distance from the transgenics so they couldn't be disarmed easily. Someone had been watching more than Ren and Stimpy on TV.

"Seriously, are you kids stupid or something? You know we've kicked the asses of people far scarier than you punks. We don't want trouble, but we'll give you hell if you want it," Jondy said in an effortless tone.

"We know what you are," said a boy with curly hair.

"All the more reason to walk away while you still can," Max went on, all too aware that her hands were tied. If anyone heard of a transgenic fighting with a human, it would be the excuse so many had been waiting for to attack them.

"I don't think you get it. These are our streets – for people, not mutant freaks," said the redhead.

It didn't look like this was going to end well. Transgenics were still second class citizens who could give a first class ass-kicking. If anything happened to those boys, the blame would be squarely on them. Max and Jondy knew they were caught between a rock and a hard place.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" asked Jondy. "We have as much right to be here as you do."

"Right? You don't even have the right to exist. You think you're going to take over our country and we're going to let you? No, I think we're within our rights to try and stop you freaks, here and now so the human race has a fighting chance," said the redhead, training his gun between Max and Jondy.

When he finally set his aim on Max, she and Jondy both blurred out of the way. This was literally child's play to them. They had been left with no choice, as flight was no longer an option, but to fight. After taking down high trained tactical teams of black ops soldiers and deranged Familiars, a couple of neighborhood teenagers would be a piece of cake.

It didn't take much effort for Jondy and Max to teach the boys not to go messing with girls unless they wanted to taste pavement. The redhead still hadn't fired his gun when he and Jondy were left to go head to head. He had become less confident after seeing his friends getting their asses handed to them, so Jondy didn't expect him to put up much of a fight.

The sound cut through the night. A gunshot. That was what stopped Jondy and the redhead before either could make a move. Their heads quickly turned to see where it had come from.

What Jondy saw was Max falling to the ground, and instinctively she rushed over to catch her.

"What the hell?" shouted the redhead. His gaze fell on his curly-haired companion lying on the ground, who had pulled his own weapon out. Apparently he had gone down, but he hadn't really blacked out like he pretended. His gun was trained to shoot again at the girls, but Jondy's foot appeared out of nowhere to kick it out of his hands. Then she bent down to pick it up from the ground.

"I suggest you and your buddies get out of here now. And if anything happens to my sister or her baby, let's just say we're the prettier and calmer 'freaks.' Got it?"

The young men only caught parts of her speech as they dashed off into the night. However, the redhead hadn't moved from where he was standing.

"Do you want me to shoot you? Drop the gun and get out of here!" Jondy commanded. She couldn't get back to Max if he was still lurking around as a possible threat.

The kid threw his gun on the floor. "She's pregnant?"

Jondy snatched up the other gun and quickly went back over to her sister, but kept an eye on the boy to make sure he left. "Just get out of here before I decide to shoot you anyway!"

He nodded and ran off in the same direction his friends had. He looked back once, but kept going until Jondy could no longer see him.

"Max?" Jondy asked in a way that sounded more like a plea than anything else as she cradled her sister in her arms. "Max, talk to me!"

The red stain emanating from Max's right thigh revealed the wound. It was bleeding profusely, which meant the kid had hit an artery. They needed to get out of the street and find her some medical help.

"God, it hurts," moaned Max.

Her sister threw her arm around Max and got them both standing on their feet again. She was losing blood fast.

"Come on. Stay with me," Jondy said as she shouldered all of their weight. "We'll be at Cindy's in no time."

The adrenaline was flowing through Jondy, giving her the strength to practically blur over to Original Cindy's apartment without a second thought. She wasn't going to let anything happen to Max. She had let her fall through the ice once before, and she had no intention of ever leaving her behind again.

"Cindy! Cindy, open up! It's an emergency!" Jondy screamed as she reached the floor their friend lived on. She didn't want to put Max down and Cindy had bolted all the locks along the door for the night.

"Jondy?" asked Cindy's voice as she undid the locks.

She had been sleeping when she heard Jondy calling through the hall, then when the girl began banging on the door she realized that it wasn't a dream. The sight in front of her was what really woke her up though. Jondy was supporting a pale Max, whose face was twisted in agony. Jondy practically ran Cindy over trying to get her sister onto the couch.

"Max was shot," she explained as Cindy rushed to light more candles so they could see. "Maxie, stay with me."

Max had started to feel cold, and her body reacted by trembling. The initial numbness had worn off, and she was in so much pain she couldn't tell where she was. Shock wouldn't be far behind.

Original Cindy didn't bother with pointless questions as she rushed over to the phone. "She's going to need a doctor. We can't risk anything because she's pregnant."

Jondy nodded, sitting beside Max. "Who are you calling?"

OC didn't respond to her. "Logan? Logan, it's Cindy. Max has been shot. We're over at my place. Get your doctor friend and get your ass over here. Now!"

"No!" Max choked out in protest. Meanwhile, Jondy attempted to check her wound. The bullet was still in her and she was afraid of removing it.

"What? All right," Cindy ignored Max and replied. This was no time to let pride get in the way. She hung up the phone and turned to Jondy. "We're gonna have to go to the hospital."

"No!" Max screamed again through the pain.

"Max, think about the baby," Jondy said in a soothing tone, brushing her hair back. "Come on. They'll have to make sure it's okay. We can't do that in Terminal City."

"Logan is on his way," Cindy informed them. "Get her downstairs. I'll put on some clothes and meet you there. Girl, I'm sorry but there wasn't nobody else I could call."

Max understood. Logan was the least of her worries. "Please let the baby be all right."

As Jondy helped Max to her feet, she wasn't sure what to say. How had so many things gone wrong so quickly? The last time she had felt so helpless was when she thought Max died. How could she have failed her again? It was moments like these that Jondy would say a silent prayer to the Blue Lady. Her prayers hadn't always been answered, but having found Max and the others after all these years gave her hope that maybe someone up there had heard her.

All she could do now was to wait for an answer.

* * *

A/N 2: Holy--! Did I just…? Whoa, I seriously didn't know I had it in me to do something that evil.

A/N 3: Anyway, I update stories based on what I have available and popularity, because I have several works in progress.


	11. Chapter 11: This Is How It Feels

A/N: I know. I'm later in posting this than intended. But it's here now. All of your reviews made my day. To JG, I really like flawed characters and I felt that was one of the most appealing things about the characters on the show.

* * *

**  
Chapter 11: This Is How It Feels**

"Alec?" Zack called as he knocked on the apartment door.

He hadn't been much of a knocker until he moved into Terminal City. Since his arrival he had seemed to have the worst timing when barging into his siblings' apartments. Aside from bearing witness to Max and Alec's morning after, he had managed to catch Jondy while changing her clothes, and Syl and Krit in the middle of going at it. Zack was a fast learner, and decided that safe was better than sorry around this place.

Still, it was taking every ounce of restraint Zack had not to just break in and drag Alec out of the apartment. This wasn't the time for formalities in Zack's book, but he continued to pound on the door, shouting Alec's name. The guy was probably still asleep or something, and Zack was just about to take matters into his own hands when the door swung open and he was greeted by Kaia in Alec's T-shirt, who looked less than happy to see him. Evidently, Alec was planning on keeping up the benefits package until he actually split. Whatever. That wasn't Zack's problem.

"Kaia, where's Alec? It's emergency," Zack told her impatiently and tried to push his way past her into the apartment.

Though he had only seen Alec a few hours ago, it felt like the world had collapsed in on him and he had no patience left for anything.

"Zack?" Alec asked as he came out of his bedroom, wearing only a pair of jeans but he was pulling on a T-shirt in a rush to see what the commotion was about. "What's wrong?"

"Your phone's off! Max is in the hospital. She and Jondy went out last night and some thug shot her. I need you to cover my shift at Command so I can get over there," Zack told him more as an order than a request.

It took Alec a moment to truly process what Zack had said. Max must have been in a really bad state if she had been taken into a hospital instead of being brought home to Terminal City. In spite of everything that had gone wrong between them over the last few months, there was no way he'd leave her on her own. It always took hell and high water for them to show they felt about each other, and this was a little bit of both.

"No, get Mole to cover it. I'm going with you," Alec said without hesitating.

He didn't even acknowledge the annoyed look crossing over Kaia's features. He knew she would want to know why he'd demand to go see the woman he didn't get along with, but he couldn't care less what she thought. Or what Zack ordered. His relationship with Max was a complicated one, while at the same time it was the deepest relationship he had ever shared with anyone. They never left each other behind. Never. And screw what anyone else thought.

"Fine. Meet me at the gate in ten minutes or I'm leaving without you," Zack replied and took off down the hallway.

Zack could tell that Alec would have argued with him and then gone off to find Max on his own anyway, so Zack decided to save them both the trouble. Besides, he was too busy being angry at himself for not being able to protect Max. It was like hearing Jondy say she'd fallen through the ice all over again. That was why he hadn't thought to look for her all those years. He hadn't gone through Lydecker's torture, working for Normal, and giving her his heart to lose her now. Ever since that day she started getting the shakes at Manticore, he'd done everything he could to save her. The escape was so that she couldn't disappear like Jack had. Why couldn't he keep her safe? Why did things always have to be so hard for him when it came to Max?

"Alec, you're not seriously going out there?" demanded Kaia as he searched for his cellphone. "The two of you can't go two minutes without wanting to kill each other."

"Hey, Mole? Remember that favor you owe me? I need you to take over Command ASAP for Zack. He and I have something we need to do… Great, and I know I'm a disgusting ordinary reject, but I'm your disgusting ordinary reject," Alec said into the phone, then ended the call. He turned his attention back to Kaia, whose expression of mild disdain was teetering on the edge of full on fury.

"Yeah, the funny thing about caring about someone? Makes you wanna kill 'em and kill for 'em at the same time," Alec said.

Kaia knew he didn't care either way if she bothered to go with him. If there was one thing that Alec McDowell could be counted on for, it was his inability to leave Max alone. Kaia knew there was some history between them, she would be an idiot not to. It was a stroke of luck that the virus had been cured, sending Max straight back into the open arms of Logan Cale and giving Kaia her chance with Alec. Everything had been going so well until Max had decided to show up sans Logan and acting all kinds of strange, causing Alec to turn his attention back to her. He was also acting a little more distant these days as well.

If there was one person Kaia couldn't stand it was Max. But it wasn't like she wished ill on her. Well, nothing fatal anyway. The last thing she wanted was to give Alec an opportunity to play a knight in Max's stupid court of sycophants.

At Manticore, they weren't allowed to fraternize much. But still Kaia had seen 494. He was trouble – that was how he became the poster child for what happened when you decided your personal agenda trumped Manticore's. He was what happened when you were stupid enough to even form your own personal agenda. His pretty face wasn't enough to make Kaia forget that. Then Manticore burned to the ground, and suddenly he was traipsing around Seattle like he owned the place, like he had been waiting for this all along. Alec was blending in, making contacts and companions. Kaia couldn't help but be impressed. From day one, Alec had made it pretty clear that he didn't have room in his heart for anyone but Max and Joshua. They were it for him.

Kaia wanted to be more to him than another casual late night roll in the sheets, which was why she had taken to being by his side whenever she could. But she wasn't sure what it was that she wanted from him. Something similar to what he saw him share with Max and Joshua? The only thing she did know was that whether she liked it or not, Max still meant a hell of a lot more to him than she did at the moment and she wasn't about to let it go any further.

"I'm going with you," Kaia said, scurrying about the apartment to collect as many of the clothes she had arrived there with.

"Whatever. Meet us at the gate in five minutes," Alec said, walking out of the apartment.

* * *

Half an hour later, Zack and Alec burst through the hospital doors with Kaia half-heartedly trailing behind them. They didn't waste time in spotting a distraught Original Cindy sitting in one of the waiting room chairs, while Jondy was pacing back and forth the length of the waiting room. The strained expressions on their faces didn't help the situation.

When Jondy looked up to see Zack standing there, she changed her destination and rushed him. Squeezing him into a tight hug, she let him shoulder some of her weight before letting the tears fall.

"We just went out for a walk. No big deal. How could this happen?" Jondy choked out with a sob.

"What were you thinking?" snapped Zack, pushing her back so that he was gripping her by the shoulder so she would face him.

"Forget that. We can play courts-martial later. How bad is she?" Alec asked.

Jondy's head turned away from Zack to see Alec. She hadn't noticed that he had come with Zack. She also registered Kaia on that list. Well, Jondy had been wondering how the situation could get any worse and here it was. Had the universe set out to make that evening a prime example of Murphy's law at its finest? Her gaze shifted to Cindy to see if maybe she had an idea how to talk her way out of this. Original Cindy's eyes darted to the floor. No such luck. Well, it looked like Jondy would have to bite the bullet on her own.

"Jondy, what aren't you telling us?" asked Zack, his voice remaining stern but full of concern.

Swallowing all of her fears, she replied, "She's not too bad, not too much blood loss. They haven't figured out what she is yet either, her friend Dr. Shankar is with her… But there's a complication…"

Somehow it was one of those moments when all of the right words were there, but there was no right way for them to come out so that they didn't tilt the world on its axis. Or make Jondy break her word to Max that she would keep her secret.

"She's pregnant."

Logan's voice stopped the whole room dead in its tracks. Two simple words, well one word and one contraction, had crumbled any sense of control they could have imagined having over the situation. All eyes in the room turned to Logan who had silently come back from his trip to the coffee machine, but his vision was limited to only one other person. Alec met his challenging stare, unsure what it was about except that he wasn't about to waver under anyone.

Letting go of Jondy, Zack seemed to flash over to Logan and put him into the same vice-like grip he liked using for interrogation.

"You left her while she was pregnant?" growled Zack. To think that he had once thought Logan worthy of his baby sister, he couldn't believe how foolish he had been. He also couldn't believe that he had missed something so glaringly obvious with Max.

Logan looked him dead in the eyes, completely unafraid. "I didn't leave her. She left me. The kid's not mine."

At that revelation, Zack quickly slackened his grip on the other man. If what he said was true, that meant… All eyes instantly turned to Alec, each pair saying something different. Kaia's were horrified, Jondy and Cindy looked guilty as sin, Logan's was discerning but of what Alec could only guess. And Zack? Zack was unreadable.

For the first time in his life since leaving Manticore, Alec did not have a snappy comeback for the situation.

"Guess she didn't bother to tell you either. But how didn't any of you notice? It's not like she hasn't started showing," Logan said.

Alec's hands clenched into fists while trying to process what he had been told, and figure out who or what he was supposed to pummel into the ground. So that was why she had been acting that way towards him. How could she keep something like this from him? How didn't he see it? All the signs seemed so obvious now. If he hadn't been so busy plotting his exit strategy, he would've seen what was right in front of him. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel besides anger and betrayal.

Then he remembered why he was standing in a hospital waiting room. Max, who was pregnant with his kid, had been shot. He could have lost them both. He still very well could. The longer Alec stood there, the more thoughts assaulted him. Questions and worries and fears. For a moment, he couldn't breathe. The whole room seemed to be closing in on him. Wasn't this his worst nightmare? Being caged in again?

Taking his cues from the animal instincts, he knew there was only one thing to do. Fight or flight.

Just as Alec had burst into the room, he stormed out of it. No one went after him.

Kaia silently crumbled into the closest chair she could find, but everyone else remained planted where they were.

"Jondy?" said Zack, approaching her more gently than before. "Look, we'll deal with this later, but how bad are Max… and her baby?"

His little sister sighed. "We don't know yet. She's stabilized. That's all they're saying for now."

"What happened?" Zack asked. He wanted to yell and punish them for running off by themselves, but he had been hit in the face with the realization that Max and Jondy were full grown adults. Yelling wouldn't solve anything.

Jondy looked at the floor then around the room, hoping to spot a good explanation for Zack. There wasn't much of one. They knew that it was dangerous to go outside of Terminal City, and even stupider not to tell anyone where they had gone. "Max just wanted to get away. We go out all the time, how was this night supposed to be any different?"

"Oh, let's see. Max got shot. And she was knocked up," Zack pointed out, running his hand through his hair in frustration. He let out a sigh. "Why didn't she say anything? How long did she think she could keep it a secret? It's not like eating the last slice of pizza. It's a kid! How could she keep something like this from me?"

"You? She didn't even tell Alec and it's his kid," Jondy shot back. "I tried to get her to tell you but she was just too ashamed. She was hurting so much. Her entire world had fallen apart on her and she just wanted some semblance of control instead of everyone looking and whispering behind her back."

"I'm her brother! I would've been there for her," Zack said angrily. His voice was not hiding the hurt that Max didn't trust him with such a big secret. "We would have figured it out. You couldn't have at least told me? Talked some sense into her?"

It was in that moment that Jondy finally snapped. She wasn't some little kid who took orders from her big brother anymore. Who was he to play the victim in all of this? First Max couldn't stop wallowing about losing Logan, Alec and Max couldn't stop quarreling, and then some stupid kid had to just go and shoot Max, and Zack was the victim?

"Yeah, and what would you have done? I told her not to keep hiding from it, that it would only make things harder for her. I could care less what you felt about it. You know why she wouldn't tell you? Because she imagined you'd hand her her ass for being stupid enough to get into this situation. She didn't want to hear about liabilities and responsibilities like she didn't know the first thing about it. Believe it or not, it's not an easy thing to tell someone you care about that you betrayed their trust and feel like you failed everyone."

Zack didn't say anything. He just stood there, trying to imagine what Max must have been going through all those weeks. He vowed the moment that the moment he could see her, he'd take her in his arms and promise her that everything would be all right. He wanted to stroke her hair and let her know that she shouldn't feel ashamed, that he loved her no matter what and she shouldn't have doubted that.

Then Jondy turned to Logan, who had been quietly taking everything in. "She missed you. She didn't mean for things to be this way, but tough luck – the world is what it is. Deal."

Suddenly, Zack realized that there was a room full of people waiting to take Max up in open arms. They had made peace with the emotional turmoil that came with keeping secrets that were pointless to keep. If he had felt so betrayed by Max, how must Alec have felt? No one had thought what this all meant for him. No one also knew that he'd been planning to leave.

"Zack, where are you going?" asked Jondy when she saw him making a beeline for the door.

"To find Alec," he answered. "Since I can't tell Max what a fool she's been, I'll go take it out on him."

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A/N 2: Oddly, I had no intention of fleshing out Kaia (she wasn't even supposed to appear, you know, one of those characters everyone's always talking about but no one ever sees) and I have no idea how those passages inserted themselves. Anyway, what do you think of her? That will help me figure out how to tie up her character later. This is all I've got for the story at the moment. It will probably be another chapter or two before I get back to the pre-written chapters, then I'll be posting the story quicker.

A/N 3: _The XYZ Affair_ will be getting updated soon too. I wrote three different versions of 'Kiss' and I hope I chose the right one to go with. Also, _Wake Me Up…_ will be making its appearance shortly.

And now for the part where I stick out my hat hoping for spare change and maybe a review…


	12. Chapter 12: Speechless

A/N: I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've updated. This has been lying around my room for quite some time, and I didn't realize I hadn't posted it.

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**Chapter 12: Speechless**

Alec said nothing. He didn't even turn his head when the door to his apartment slammed open so loudly, he thought it would fly off the hinges. It wouldn't take more than one guess to know who it was. But Alec was more than ready to get out of there.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked Zack, lumbering in the doorway to Alec's bedroom.

"I hear Vegas is nice this time of year," Alec said nonchalantly, tossing another shirt into his duffel bag.

It took every ounce of self-control for Zack not to choke the other X5 standing in front of him. How dare he be so calm while Max was lying in a hospital bed after being shot? And pregnant. Zack was still getting used to the pregnant part.

"Are you insane? You need to get back there," Zack countered.

Alec picked up the bag and walked toward Zack whose bulky form filled the only exit. He stopped a few feet away from Zack.

"I only make things worse for Max. If you haven't noticed, I'm the cause of this current predicament," Alec replied. "She'll be better with me gone."

Zack crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And you really believe your own b.s.?"

Alec moved closer toward Zack, hoping that he would step out of the way. Zack shifted to take up more room and stand a little straighter.

"Seriously? After all we've been through? All that you _and_ Max have been through, you're going to just walk away?" Zack demanded. "I figured you for a lot of things, but a coward wasn't one of them."

For the second time that day, Alec didn't have a witty comeback for the gravity of his situation.

"Move," he gritted out.

"Make me," growled Zack.

Alec was tense. Every muscle in his body was ready to spring into action. He was itching for a fight, something he knew how to cope with. Max? A baby? He didn't know what he was supposed to do. In a fight, he knew how to kick, jab, punch and parry his way to victory.

From the look in Zack's eyes, it seemed like they were thinking the exact same thing. He wasn't going anywhere unless Alec made him. With that thought in mind, he dropped his bag to the floor and took a few steps back before charging at Zack.

The other X5 was ready for him but Alec had more strength than Zack had anticipated, and the two quickly tumbled to the ground in a flurry of fisticuffs. A quick punch from Zack earned an equal one from Alec as they rolled on the floor trying to get the upper hand on the other. Alec aimed his fist at Zack's face but found himself reeling from pain when he remembered that Max's older brother was part machine. Before he could recover from the surprise and rethink his strategy, Zack managed to get another hit in, sending Alec crashing to the floor on his back.

"We're going back to the hospital," Zack grunted as he pulled himself onto his feet.

Alec struggled to stand, but remained defiant in his stumbling stance. He wasn't ready to give up yet. His opponent was larger and could dish out twice the damage. But Alec didn't care. He needed to get out or die trying.

"I'm not going back there," Alec said darkly, spitting out the blood from his mouth.

Zack took a long look at him. He hadn't seen this side of his fellow X5 before. In all Zack's memories, Alec was a whimsical and sarcastic character no matter the situation. All of Manticore's creatures had a dark side, a breaking point, and Zack was forced to remember that. Both men held their ground, not giving or taking an inch.

"So after everything she's done for you, after knowing you've got the chance to have a family, you're going to walk away?" Zack asked incredulously.

"What the hell is your problem? You've been dying to get rid of me since you got here."

"Yeah, but not like this!" Zack yelled at him. Then a realization dawned on him. "You're in love with Max."

"Bullshit. We're just friends. Or we used to be," Alec said. "I don't do complicated. And you knew I was leaving before this all went to hell. If this kid is born, I have to stay."

"Yeah right," said Zack, shaking his head in disbelief. "If you were just friends, you wouldn't be running scared out of your mind."

Alec snorted. "Your brain must have short circuited when I hit you."

Zack edged closer to him. "Must have been before that for me to have not seen it sooner."

"So what? You think your little speech will make me go sprinting to Max to play house?" Alec snapped. "I can't go back there! I'll make things worse! Bad things happen to people… I care about."

It was Zack's turn to scoff. "News flash, that bad things happen to everyone. Welcome to life. You know how many of my siblings I've lost? Jack died of seizures. Lydecker shot Eva in front of us. God, Tinga… Hell, Max was shot in the heart and died on the table in front of me! But I'm still here. We're both still here! If you really gave a damn about Max, you wouldn't be able to just leave."

Alec recoiled from Zack's assessment of him. How dare he accuse him of not caring about Max? Alec had done everything in his power not to, but somehow that girl had gotten under his skin like no one else. He had said he only stayed in Seattle to make up the money he lost to her. He stayed after that because he'd found a great job working with her along with some easy deals on the side, so why give up a good thing? And Josh. He couldn't leave the big lug after everything. Then he got caught up with their little 'Save the Mutants' cause. Finally, he woke up one morning and realized he was free but didn't want to leave _her_. He hated himself and her that morning. That was the morning Zack had found them together.

His silence only further incited Zack's rage.

"Maybe Max is better off with you," Zack said. "I thought that keeping everyone separate would keep them safe. But you know what? Ten years they were away from each other and now some of them are dead after years alone, wondering what happened to the others. We don't get that time back, Alec. We don't get them back. Don't make that mistake."

"It's not the same. Do you have any idea what it's like knowing that you destroyed someone's life? Because that's what happens to the people around me. Failing to protect them is one thing, being unable to protect them from yourself is another."

"It is the exact same thing, drama queen. You weren't the one who shot Max. Yes, you were the one who got her um… pregnant… but that both of you being idiots. Don't give yourself so much credit. Sometimes… shit happens."

Alec stared at him. "You escaped from Manticore when you were twelve, spent the rest of your life on the lam, committed suicide, came back from the dead as a cyborg… and all you have to say is 'shit happens'?"

"I didn't come back as the Dalai Lama, smart ass."

"No kidding."

Zack gritted his teeth. "I'm giving you a choice. If you walk out that door, you better stay gone or I'll make sure of it myself."

"What's in this for you?"

"Other than not having to tell Max that I killed you? I'd say that my efforts to keep my family safe by keeping them apart haven't gotten me very far. All I think about these days is the time I wasted. The time they wasted, when we could have been together. That kind of regret eats away at you and doesn't fade away. Trust me."

Alec nodded slowly, absorbing what Zack was saying. They both stood still for a moment, neither sure of the other's next move.

After a few moments had passed, Alec drew in a deep breath. "So why are we standing around here? Let's get back to the hospital."

Zack nodded. "I take it that I don't have to kick your ass all the way back there?"

"Please, I had you right where I wanted you," Alec said as Zack followed him out of the apartment. "If anyone was getting his ass kicked, it was you."

"Yeah and Lydecker cross-dresses on weekends. Oh, and I still owe you an ass-kicking when this is all over – you knocked up my baby sister."

Alec turned back and tried to read the expression on Zack's face. Something told him that Zack might not have been kidding…

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A/N 2: I know – high amounts of drama. I'm hoping that I'll be able to tie it up in a few more chapters. Sorry that I dodged what's going on with Max, but she and the others will be back next chapter.

Thanks to all my reviewers! Sorry the updates have been so slow. You guys are the best!


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